AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY Jan. 13, 2015

A FORMER Marist Brother who taught at the order’s Maitland high school from 1977 has died in an apparent suicide only two months after child sex allegations were made against him.

A Hunter man made a statement to police in August alleging the Brother sexually abused him during a camping trip in the late 1970s while the man was a student at the school.

The Brother, 74, died on rail land at Oatley in October, on a night when ‘‘his judgment was dark and sense of hope disturbed’’, said Marist Provincial Brother Jeff Crowe in a eulogy at his funeral.

‘‘Something went very wrong for him that Sunday night. We will most likely never know exactly what. We have to let the question go,’’ Brother Crowe said.

The Hunter man from a respected Catholic family confirmed he had reported allegations…