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Call for Bathurst Police to Be Honoured for Bringing St Stanislaus College Paedophiles to Justice

By Joanna Woodburn
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
July 26, 2018

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-26/call-for-recognition-for-police-investigation-into-child-abuse/10034844

PHOTO: Former St Stanislaus College student and Bathurst journalist, Terry Jones, has asked for Chifley Police District to be honoured for its investigation into child sexual abuse. (ABC News: Joanna Woodburn)

The New South Wales Government is being asked to honour the police investigators who brought to justice the paedophile priests, brothers and dorm masters who abused students at Bathurst's St Stanislaus College in the state's Central West region.

At least 160 students at St Stanislaus College — a Catholic boys' boarding school — were abused by priests and staff between the 1970s and 1990s.

Terry Jones, a former student of the college has written to state MP Paul Toole to ask for the Chifley Police District to be recognised for helping to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The police worked in Bathurst under the most extreme circumstances and they came up with 161 victims and 400 offences in the one school."

"We've got to put them on a pedestal," Mr Jones said.

Former priest, Brian Joseph Spillane, is one of the staff who worked at the St Stanislaus College who is serving jail time for abusing students at the school.

PHOTO: Former priest Brian Spillane leaves the Downing Centre Courts in Sydney in 2008. Spillane is serving time in jail for abusing children at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst. (AAP: Dean Lewins)

Strict non-publication orders, which were placed on his numerous cases in 2013, were lifted in 2016.

Mr Jones said there was not enough recognition of what occurred at the school between the 1970s and 1990s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse did not hold a public hearing in Bathurst.

In a statement to the ABC in March 2017, it said it was unlikely that Bathurst institutions would be the subject of a public hearing because of its obligation to report by December 2017.

It said a major consideration in deciding whether to hold a public hearing was whether there were ongoing criminal cases that could be prejudiced.

"Bathurst has not heard the truth," Mr Jones said.

"Acknowledge the two detectives who led this investigation.

"This was not an ordinary investigation. This was a huge brief of evidence for a local area commander and his force to put together in Bathurst."

PHOTO: At least 160 students at St Stanislaus College were abused by priests and staff between the 1970s and 1990s. (ABC News: Gavin Coote)

Mother of victim supports call

Carole Clarke's son, Tor Nielson, was abused by Spillane while he was a student at St Stanislaus College and was the whistleblower on the abuse at the school.

Mrs Clarke said she is supportive of Mr Jones's call to honour the police who brought the priests to justice.

"I think it's a wonderful idea and I think it's very important," Mrs Clarke said.

"What happened in Bathurst was a terrible thing and it was kept a secret for so long … people didn't know what was happening in their own community and with their own children.

"The fact that it was never properly acknowledged is a real shame."

Mr Jones would like the recognition of the Bathurst police to coincide with the national apology to victims of institutional child sexual abuse on October 22.

He said he believed the abuse has damaged Bathurst.

"Bathurst's reputation is shot," Mr Jones said.

"Bathurst's biggest industry is education [and] it's out there every time a priest was jailed."

The Commander of the Chifley Police District declined to comment about Mr Jones's request.

Mr Toole also declined to comment.

 

 

 

 

 




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