Ballarat Catholic School with History of Sexual Abuse Puts Focus on Child Protection
By Charlotte King
St Patrick's College in Ballarat, infamous for its history of child sexual abuse, is determined to become a leader in child protection. Among the "old boys" of St Patricks College are some of the most notorious convicted paedophiles in Australia. An honours board on display is an indication of the changes the school is trying to enact. The board lists all of the past students, with names and dates listed in gold, who have gone on to be ordained as Catholic priests.
Headmaster John Crowley said some of those names were now blacked out. "After the first sitting of the royal commission there were details of certain individuals who were old collegians of the school, that to me were just horrifying," he said. "It just felt right that we needed to strike a black line through the names." Those names include Bryan Coffey, ordained in 1960 and sentenced in the 1990s for multiple child sex offences. Next to 1961 is Gerald Ridsdale — one of the country's most prolific paedophiles. Robert Claffey is the third name blacked out. He was ordained in 1969 and was convicted and sentenced last November to 18 years in jail for sexually abusing a dozen children over three decades. "It just really does draw a line in the sand in terms of, as a school community, where we believe our support needs to be," Mr Crowley said. 'Acknowledging and apologising' for the past
Dressed in distinctive dark robes, with a black and white collar, St Patrick's College staff of Christian Brothers ran the school for over 100 years. Brothers who taught at other schools, like the Ballarat East boys primary school, St Alipius, also lived at the school. Phil Nagle was nine when a brother teaching at St Alipius repeatedly sexually assaulted him. Mr Nagle said by the time he arrived as a boarder at St Patricks, he was on guard. "Every single morning for those five years I went to church first thing in the morning, so I knew where all the pricks were," he said. "Very scary years as you can imagine, 40 or so kids in a dormitory, with a Christian Brother in charge of that dormitory. "Very aware trying to make sure that my bed was in the middle of other kids beds, not tucked away in a corner." The 52-year-old still lives and works in Ballarat and for decades he wanted nothing to do with the school that had housed sexual predators, but that changed when a group of students wrote an open letter in 2015. "We offer our deepest sympathies for the truly reprehensible actions that have faced past students at the hands of those who had been trusted," the students wrote. "The College, as it stands now, is an institution that is acknowledging and apologising for its past." It had a profound impact, and Phil Nagle asked to meet with Mr Crowley. "We sat down, we had lunch, we had a chat, just the things they were putting in place so these things could not happen," Mr Nagle said. "It's all part of their school program now, you know, kids get sexual education from a young age, they know what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. "That whole culture of what St Pats is doing is the example, well to me for the whole world. I mean with what they've done with being on the front foot, to show us victims and us survivors what they've got in place now, is unbelievable, you know, blew me away." 'Providing leadership' PHOTO: St Patrick's in the 1970s, when many abuse cases occured. (Supplied: Catholic Church) St Patrick's College is the first school in Victoria to sign onto the Keeping Safe child protection curriculum. Pioneered in South Australia, it explicitly teaches children how to recognise and prevent abuse. "As a school with our history, we felt that there was such an important obligation now to make sure that we provided leadership in this area," said Mr Crowley. "Obviously to reassure victims and survivors that it can never happen again at St Patrick's College, and that commitment that we have an opportunity today to provide an experience for young people that is as positive as it can be." The sex abuse royal commission has heard the majority of abuse compensation claims it has paid relate to schools in the 1970s. The royal commission also found that 22 per cent of Christian Brothers were alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse. There are no Christian Brothers living at the school anymore, but the ghosts of the past still linger. Not far from Mr Crowley's office, black and white portraits line a small dark hallway. "So these are all the past headmasters of St Patrick's College," he said. His own portrait stands out as the only one in colour — he is the second lay headmaster at the school since 1893. At least one of the men pictured on the wall of past headmasters has already been singled out in the inquiry, and has been accused of misleading the police about his knowledge of abuse. But Mr Crowley is not ready to condemn any more individuals just yet. "I would say that knowledge of sexual abuse and inaction is not worthy of celebration, and we will respond in terms of a whole range of honour boards, building names, if the commission finds that individuals have acted in certain ways," he said. "But we need to wait until those findings come down, because I'm not judge and jury here, and we're waiting for that." Mr Nagle is waiting too. "The day we walk up there and we don't see any of their names, that's when the spookiness goes, when those names are eradicated," he said.
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