AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated on 16 October 2013)
On 8 October 2013, Queensland police charged a man with having sexually abused children at a Catholic boys’ institution in the 1980s. On the same day, 8 October 2013, the Catholic order of De La Salle Brothers issued a media statement confirming that the charges involve a De La Salle Brother. Broken Rites has ascertained that the charges were laid by a police unit which is investigating allegations about BoysTown (at Beaudesert, south-west of Brisbane). This institution was formerly operated by the De La Salle Brothers to hold troubled boys.
This Brother faces 11 charges for offences allegedly committed between September 30, 1984, and December 1, 1986. These include nine counts of indecent treatment of boys under 14, plus one count of carnal knowledge and one count of physical assault.
On 8 October 2013, the Brother (now aged 58 and living in New South Wales) was issued with an order that he must appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on a certain date for a preliminary step in which prosecutors would file the charges with a magistrate. This magistrate would then schedule the case to come up again for mention in court on a later date to determine the subsequent step in the prosecution process. Under Queensland law, a defendant’s name cannot be published until after a magistrates court decides to commit him for trial.
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