Catholic Church 'fiercely resisted' paying compensation to victims of a child sex offender teacher who threatened to kill a 10-year-old boy's mother if he told her about the abuse

By Bryant Hevesi
Daily Mail
July 11, 2017

https://goo.gl/kQaj9s

Documents released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (pictured) show a Catholic Diocese employed a teacher knowing he had previously been convicted of sexual assault

The Maitland-Newcastle Diocese reportedly 'fiercely resisted' a sexual abuse victim's claim for compensation

A school teacher who sexually abused two young male pupils was employed at a Catholic school despite telling officials he was previously convicted for sexual assault. 

Documents released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reveal how legal advice obtained by a Catholic Diocese said the boy's parents then had the right to sue over a failure to adequately protect their children.

When one victim tried in 2005 to seek compensation from the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in New South Wales, they 'fiercely resisted', documents say, according to The Newcastle Herald.

The teacher, known only as GKI, was charged with indecently assaulting two boys in 1988, and later convicted of the offences, documents released on Monday show.

The Newcastle Herald reported that documents state GKI had at one stage threatened to kill a 10-year-old boy's mother if he told her he was being abused.

In an affidavit from 2005, GKI told how he made an application to the Diocese to work in the Catholic education system in 1974.

He said he had asked Monsignor Vince Dilley if he was aware he was dismissed from a job in about 1962, saying words to the effect of 'I have a previous conviction for sexual assaults on boys while I was a teacher in the Public Education System'.

GKI said both Monsignor Dilley and Monsignor Frank Coolahan from the Catholic Education Office, who he was later interviewed by, said they were aware of his conviction. 

Just five days after the affidavit was made, Catholic Church Insurances Limited wrote to then Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone about the new evidence which had come to light.

'Will not be able to provide indemnity in this matter and the Diocese will be responsible for any settlement sum and legal costs incurred from today,' CCI wrote. 

'The dilemma we now face is the difficulty of defending the actions of the diocese, who allegedly allowed a known sex offender to work as a teacher in the Catholic education system.' 

In August 1990, a report to Bishop Leo Clarke from the 'committee investigating the handling of reported sexual abuse in Catholic school in Maitland Diocese' advised parents had the right to sue over a failure to adequately protect their children. 

'Our legal consultant suggests that the parents in this case would have a pretty good case if they chose to act,' the report said. 

But Barrister Andrew Morrison, SC, who acted on behalf of one 10-year-old victim, said in 2009 the Diocese had 'fiercely resisted' the 2005 case.