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Principal knew about student sex abuse 35 years before teacher was convicted, letter reveals
By Henry Zwartz
Senior staff at a Catholic school in Tasmania, including the then principal and his boss, were aware of allegations a teacher was sexually abusing multiple children as far back as 1971, and sought to move the teacher to a different parish, a letter obtained by the ABC reveals. The teacher, Greg Ferguson, was convicted of historical child sex offences against two students in 2007 relating to his time at Burnie's Marist College in the early 1970s. A letter written by then Marist College principal, Father Bernard Hosie, to his boss Marist provincial Peter Guiren in November 1971 sought advice on whether Ferguson should be moved on after reports he was "fooling around" with young boys at the school. "I have reports of about 8 boys that Greg Ferguson (they claim) has been fooling around with in his room ... it would ... be very easy to move him if it had to be done overnight," the letter states. "I think the best thing is to sit out the year and leave Greg here. But the affair is pretty widely known among the boys I fear," it goes on to say. Ferguson left Marist College in 1972 and worked across Australia over several decades, including in Gladstone in Queensland. A source within the Catholic Church has confirmed with the ABC that the letter is genuine. 'We are sitting on a volcano'The letter reveals concerns by Father Hosie that the abuse of children by Ferguson could become a court case, and that he shared his concerns with at least two other staff. "I am, of course, frightened of a court case. It would need only one parent to lay charges," the letter said.
The letter is signed with a "received by" mark and the signature of Father Guiren, who was principal of the college before Father Hosie. Multiple allegations of sexual abuse surround Father Guiren during his time as principal and were made public for the first time in an ABC investigation earlier this year. Including Ferguson, five former staff associated with the college have been sent to prison on child sex offences. They include Thomas Fulcher, who was sentenced to four years' prison, two without parole, in December 2018 after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two boys at Marist College between 1964 and 1967. Father Hosie's letter refers to Fulcher, who was part of the teaching staff at the time. "Strange that Tom Fulcher caught nothing of it though," Father Hosie questions in the letter. Father Hosie later left the Marist Fathers and died in the United States in 2016. 'He pinned me against the wall'One former student, Andrew Murray, told the ABC he had been told to go to Ferguson's room one night in November 1971, and when he arrived, witnessed the teacher naked chasing sixth graders around his room. "I knocked on the door, the door opened, and I was confronted with three young students, they would have been sixth grade, being chased around a room by Father Greg Ferguson," Mr Murray said. "He was erect, he had no underpants on." Mr Murray, who was 16 at the time, said he took the children back to their rooms that night before reporting it to Father Hosie the next day. "When I told Hosie he pinned me against the wall, holding me by the shirt collar of the throat and in turn told me if I ever repeated such vile accusations about Father Ferguson again I would be leaving school without my end of year results; he then told me to get out," he said. Another former student, who did not wish to be identified, said he recalled a similar incident that on the same night. "We were scared to go to his [Ferguson's] room. When we got there ... he was naked," the student said. "It was horrible." Mr Murray said it was common knowledge among students to avoid Ferguson's room. "He had the nickname, 'Mr Date', we tried to avoid going there unless we were in pairs," Mr Murray said. Burnie 'Tasmania's Ballarat'Two former students have told the ABC they believe they are part of the group of eight mentioned in the letter, and allege they were sexually abused by Ferguson in the early 1970s. They said they had raised their experiences of sexual abuse with school staff. Former Tasmanian Member of Parliament and sex abuse survivor Paul O'Halloran told the ABC the scale of abuse in the community was "Tasmania's Ballarat". "Burnie is at the centre of a horrific scale of sexual abuse going over several decades, right through from the 60s to the 80s," Mr O'Halloran said.
Mr O'Halloran, a former student at the College, was sexually abused during his education there and successfully lobbied for the Royal Commission to visit Tasmania as part of its hearings into historical sex abuse cases. In a statement, the Marist Fathers said "the response indicated by the letter was totally inappropriate and inadequate". "If repeated today, it would also be against the Marist Fathers' current policy, against the law, and contrary to mandatory reporting obligations," the statement read.
"The Marist Fathers are not aware of any further historical records or documents indicating that staff were acting inappropriately with children. "We cannot and will not attempt to contest the idea that the approach taken in the past in a number of situations was inappropriate and we will continue to take a survivor-focussed approach to anyone coming forward." In a statement, the Archdiocese of Hobart said "the historical act of moving priests suspected of child sexual abuse between parishes or schools is reprehensible". "The Archdiocese of Hobart has implemented the Safe Communities Policy and Framework that goes beyond meeting its legal obligations. The policy and framework ensures the reporting of all disclosures, allegations, incidents or concerns in relation to abuse," it said.
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