AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today
ELEANOR HALL: The child abuse royal commission has for the first time heard evidence from a convicted child sex offender.
Former Marist Brother, Gregory Sutton, has appeared at the inquiry in Sydney to give evidence about his time as a teacher at schools in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT.
He was convicted in 1996 of 67 counts of sexual offences against 15 children.
He served 12 years in jail.
The Church has paid $1.8 million in compensation relating to Sutton’s offences.
Our correspondent covering the inquiry, Emily Bourke, joins us now.
Emily, what sort of questioning did this convicted offender face when he took the stand this morning?
EMILY BOURKE: Greg Sutton has been asked about his teaching career in Australia, which began in the 1970s. The royal commission has heard that he moved frequently between schools run by the Marist Brothers and seemingly those transfers occurred without much explanation. But we know that there were complaints about his misconduct with children dating back to his very early teaching career in 1974.
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