AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 16 January 2015)
Many years ago, Broken Rites began researching “Brother Gabriel Mount”, who had worked in Catholic children’s homes conducted by the St John of God Brothers in New South Wales and Victoria. We discovered that he eventually became a priest (“Father Roger Mount”), working in Papua New Guinea. In October 2014 he was brought back to Australia, where Victorian police charged him with multiple child-sex offences, involving seven Victorian victims. He is in custody in Victoria, where he has made two brief appearances in court (by video link from prison), the most recent being on 16 January 2015. New South Wales police, also, are investigating Father Mount concerning incidents that are alleged to have occurred in NSW.
Broken Rites research ascertained that, early in his church career (in the 1960s and 1970s), Roger Mount was listed in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory as Brother “Gabriel” Mount, a member of a Catholic religious order called the St John of God Brothers. (When men joined this religious order, they normally adopted an ancient “saintly” name – hence Brother “Gabriel”.)
Later, Brother “Gabriel” Mount transferred to Papua New Guinea, where he left the St John of God order and became a diocesan priest. He reverted to his birth name, becoming Father Roger Mount, and was attached to the Diocese of Port Moresby. He reached a senior rank in this diocese. His most recent parish, Sogeri, is on the southern end of PNG’s famous Kokoda Track.
In October 2014, Father Roger Melville Mount (now aged 72) was deported from Papua New Guinea to Australia. On arrival in Cairns (Queensland), he was arrested by police, who then obtained a court order for Mount to be extradited to Victoria. He was taken to Victoria by detectives from the Sano Taskforce in the Victoria Police sex crime squad. This taskforce was established to investigate allegations regarding religious organisations.
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