Former Hamilton Marist principal Brother Christopher Wade charged with offences linked to two Brothers

By Joanne Mccarthy
Newcastle Herald
February 14, 2017

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4468251/brother-charged-with-perverting-justice/

Charged: Former Hamilton Marist Brothers school principal, Brother Christopher Wade, at the school in 1977. He was charged with two counts of making false statements to police and two counts of perverting the course of justice.

FORMER Hamilton Marist Brothers school principal, Brother Christopher Wade, has been charged with making false statements to police and perverting the course of justice.

Strike Force Georgiana detectives Sergeant Kristi Faber, and Senior Constable Simon Grob, charged Brother Wade with four offences on Tuesday relating to statements he made to police in 2014 during Georgiana investigations into Marist Brothers Francis Cable (Brother Romuald) and Darcy O’Sullivan (Brother Dominic).

He was charged in Sydney. 

Brother Christopher, 78, whose real name is William Henry Wade, was charged after investigations following his statement to Strike Force Georgiana in 2014 that he did “not remember ever having to consult the Provincial regarding any complaint or grievances of the Brothers of Hamilton during my time”.

In a separate statement to Georgiana detectives that was tendered at a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Newcastle in September, Brother Christopher recalled a complaint by “a student or a parent or something” about Brother Romuald.

In his statement Brother Christopher said “there had been a complaint about him (Romuald) interfering with a boy. That’s what we called it back then. It was interfering.”

Brother Christopher told Detective Faber, “I dldn’t even know what a paedophile or paedophilia were back then.”

He said he had a conversation with Romuald and “what I remember about that conversation is that he said to me, ‘I thought I had been good in that area recently’.”

In his statement and in evidence to the royal commission Brother Christopher said he thought Romuald had made “an admission that he had done stuff in the past”. In his statement Brother Christopher said when he asked Romuald about the complaint of interfering with a boy, Romuald denied the allegation.

Brothers Romuald and Dominic were both convicted of child sex offences at the Hamilton school.

In his statement to the royal commission hearing about child sex allegations against Catholic Church representatives in the Hunter region, Brother Christopher said the transcript of his statements to police in 2014 were accurate.

Brother Christopher started training to be a Brother in 1953 when he was 18. He was transferred to Marist Brothers Hamilton in 1969. He was appointed principal in 1971 and remained at the school until 1976. He was later appointed principal at Marist schools in Brisbane and Canberra.

The matter is listed for mention at Newcastle Local Court in March.