AUSTRALIA
The Age
March 19, 2014
Adam Cooper
Reporter for The Age
An American Catholic brother has been committed to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting two boys and two girls more than 30 years ago.
Bernard Joseph Hartman, 74, who voluntarily returned to Australia from the United States last year after Victorian authorities initiated moves to have him extradited, will stand trial on 14 charges of indecent assault, two counts of gross indecency with a girl under 16 and two of assault.
After hearing more than two days of evidence in a committal hearing, magistrate Jo Metcalf on Wednesday found there was sufficient evidence for Brother Hartman to be found guilty.
Brother Hartman pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He is accused of sexually abusing two teenage boys in 1981 and 1982 while he was a teacher at St Paul’s College in Altona.
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