AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites
By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 6 June 2015)
The Catholic Church sheltered Father John Stockdale for 31 years in parishes in northern Victoria while he committed sexual crimes against boys. Publicly, Father Stockdale upheld the strict morality which the church imposed on all lay Catholics. Privately, Father Stockdale was going to a gay club to have casual sex. On New Year’s Eve in 1995, Fr Stockdale was found dead in a sex cubicle at the “Club 80” gay venue in Melbourne.
A Victorian man (“Joe”) told Broken Rites in August 1994 that, when he was an altar boy 20 years earlier, he was molested by Father Stockdale. Broken Rites advised Joe to report the crime to the Victoria Police sexual offences and child abuse unit. Joe was slow in contacting the police and, when the police finally learned about Stockdale’s activities, the priest was dead.
The church inserted a death notice in the Melbourne “Herald Sun” on 4 January 1996, saying that Fr John Stockdale had died “suddenly” in Melbourne. A colleague told parishioners that Stockdale had had a heart attack.
Nine months later, the full circumstances of this death were revealed. The Herald Sun” (7 September 1996) reported that Father John Stockdale’s death occurred about 11.30 PM on 31 December 1995 — New Year’s Eve — in a sex cubicle at Club 80, a “men-only” club in Collingwood, Melbourne.
At Club 80, patrons retire to these cubicles to have random, anonymous sex. In fairness to Club 80, Broken Rites acknowledges that this club is not just about sex cubicles. It also has rooms for first-run movies (including art-house, not just porn, movies), plus areas for reading, socialising and refreshments. The club was advertised as “for men only”.
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