PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Roman Catholic religious brother who worked for years in Pittsburgh is scheduled to go on trial today in Australia on charges of sexually abusing children there.
Brother Bernard Hartman of the Marianist religious order returned to Australia in 2013 to face 18 charges of sexually assaulting two girls and two boys in the 1970s and early 1980s, when he was assigned to a Catholic school in Melbourne.
Details about the trial are limited because the presiding judge has issued a “suppression order,” according to the Office of Public Prosecutions in the Australian state of Victoria.
Under Australian law, a judge can partially or entirely forbid the release or publication of details about a court case under certain circumstances, including those that might distress or embarrass alleged victims of sexual offenses, according to a Melbourne Law School study.
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