AUSTRALIA
The New Daily
NRL great Matthew Johns has revealed he witnessed “incredible cruelty” during his time in the Catholic education system.
Johns — who played rugby league for Newcastle, Cronulla, New South Wales and Australia — attended All Saints College in Cessnock, NSW, for his education.
The school was formerly run by Marist Brothers, and Johns, deeply moved by the ongoing Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, opened up on Wednesday morning.
He dubbed evidence that has emerged as “horrific” and added that his own experience attending a Catholic school was “tough” and “over the top”.
“I didn’t see anything, as far as child abuse, of a sexual nature,” Johns told listeners on his Triple M breakfast radio show, The Grill Team.
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