AUSTRALIA
Star Weekly
JULY 25, 2017
BY GOYA DMYTRYSHCHAK
A Catholic Brother who sexually abused children in the Altona area in the 1970s and ’80s was released from jail on Sunday to return to the supervision of his church in the US.
Bernard Joseph Hartman, 78, a former teacher at St Paul’s College in Altona North, was jailed for three years with one year suspended for sustained sexual abuse, including penetration, of a boy and two girls as young as eight.
Altona’s Mairead Ashcroft, who brought the first charge against Hartman that led to his extradition from the US, said she held concerns about his supervision by his Marianist order.
“When we were in court we heard that while he was being supervised here, he was allowed to go for a 10-day holiday to Apollo Bay with the Christian Brothers over the Australia Day weekend while families were having a holiday at the beach,” Ms Ashcroft said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.