AUSTRALIA
The West Australian
Tim Clarke
February 21, 2016
For Roman Catholic Bishop Max Davis, the detached township of New Norcia – established in 1846 by Benedictine missionary Rosendo Salvado – was where his religious calling was realised.
And for most of the boys he schooled during his time as a teacher and dean of discipline at St Benedict’s boys college in the town, he was remembered as a firm but fair master who could cane and comfort in the same day.
Others, however, held very different memories of the young priest known as “Bang Bang”.
Last week, five St Benedict’s old boys unequivocally named the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Australian Catholic Defence Diocese as their sexual abuser of nearly 50 years ago. And despite the passage of time, they could not have been clearer in their recollection.
“That’s a definite remembrance, there’s no reconstruction there. I remember exactly who’s done it -Brother Max,” said one.
“The person who abused me was with the church – the person who abused me was Max Davis,” said another.
Those recollections made up the core of the case against Bishop Davis, who became the most senior Australian Catholic figure to ever face sexual abuse charges when he came before WA’s District Court.
But this week, those memories were dismissed by a jury, who cleared the Bishop of all six allegations, recounted by five men who did not know each other, but who all thought they knew who had abused them.
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