AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
In Newcastle Local Court (New South Wales) on 5 February 2014, a Marist Brother (Darcy John O’Sullivan, known as Brother “Dominic”) was committed for trial on eight charges of indecently assaulting four schoolboys in the 1970s. In written police statements, the former students alleged that they were indecently handled by Brother Dominic while in class, and they allegedly saw him placing his hands into other students’ shorts.
Brother “Dominic”, now elderly, is retired from teaching and resides at a Marist Brothers facility in Queensland. He was charged under his birth name, Darcy John O’Sullivan. “Dominic” is the religious name that he adoped when he joirned the Marist Brothers.
Police charged Brother Dominic with having indecently assaulted the four boys, aged 14 and 15, at the Marist Brothers Hamilton school in Newcastle. The offences allegedly occurred in 1971 and 1972.
The court received written statements, signed by each of the ex-students.
The statement from one student alleged that Brother Dominic put his hand up the boy’s shorts and squeezed the boy’s penis. The boy stated that he yelled at Brother Dominic: ‘‘F— off and leave me alone’’.
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