Ex-catholic Brother Jailed for Boys" Abuse

Sky News
December 11, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/12/11/ex-catholic-brother-jailed-for-boys--abuse.html

A former Catholic brother who smiled after abusing boys at a Victorian college more than 30 years ago has been jailed.

Edward Mamo, 71, was working as a groundskeeper, bus driver and sports coach when he abused 14 teenagers in the laundry room of Monivae College at Hamilton in the 1970s and 1980s.

He used a strap or cane to whip some over their bare buttocks and grabbed the genitals of others.

Mamo will spend 12 months behind bars after being handed a jail sentence of 34 months, suspended for 22 months, in the County Court of Victoria on Friday.

The court heard Mamo would punish boys for smoking cigarettes, even though he wasn't authorised to carry out corporal punishment.

He told them he would refer them to the college's director if they didn't accept punishment from him.

Mamo was seen to smile after assaulting some victims at the college, which was operated by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the court heard.

He bizarrely attempted to console one victim as he struck him, and then rubbed the welts he left on the boy, Judge John Smallwood said.

Mamo used the calculated physical assaults for his own sexual gratification, the court heard.

'What has occurred here is a gross breach of trust,' Judge Smallwood said.

The victims, aged about 13 to 15 at the time, felt betrayed by the college.

Many had lost their faith, and battled psychological and social trauma after Mamo's abuse.

'It seems extraordinary you could have continued to offend in this way, over years, without anyone doing anything about it,' Judge Smallwood said.

Mamo had pleaded guilty to 21 counts of indecent assault.

He was in 2013 jailed for very similar offending at the same college, having pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault on seven schoolboys over a four-year period also in the 1970s.

Mamo will serve out his prison time in protection and will be on the sex offender register for life.

The maximum penalty at the time of the offending was five years in jail.