AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 24 May 2014)
The Marist Brothers knew that Brother Kostka John Chute was a danger to boys but they continued to inflict him on new victims. In 2008 some of Brother Kostka’s victims succeeded in getting him jailed for some of his crimes. And now, in June 2014, Australia’s national child-abuse Royal Commission is to hold a public hearing to examine how the Marists handled (or mis-handled) Brother Kostka and another Marist Brother.
Marist Brother John William Chute (who was aged 75 when in court in 2008), was also known by his “religious” name, “Brother Kostka”. He pleaded guilty in the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court to committing indecent acts against pupils at a Canberra school (Marist College) between 1985 and 1989 when they were aged 13 and 14.
On 22 June 2008, Kostka was sentenced to a total of six years jail, with the first two years in full-time prison, the third year to be served by weekend detention, and the remaining three years to be fully suspended.
An agreed statement of facts (submitted to the Supreme Court jointly by the prosecution and the defence) revealed that the parents of at least one victim reported Brother Kostka Chute’s abuse to the Marist College headmaster in 1986, but Kostka remained at the school until the end of 1993.
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