St. John’s Prep brother on leave, accused of sex abuse

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

August 23, 2018

By Mary Markos

A St. John’s Preparatory School faculty member is on unpaid leave after allegations of sexually abusing a child came to light from when he was in Baltimore in the mid-1980s.

Brother Robert “Bob” Flaherty is no longer on campus and has been banned from active ministry by the Xaverian Brothers, which sponsors the all-boys school in Danvers.

“It’s important for us as a school to celebrate the good things and deal with challenges that confront us. That’s what we’re doing now,” St. John’s Headmaster Edward P. Hardiman told the Herald.

The abuse allegedly occurred before Flaherty’s time at St. John’s. He worked at the Catholic school on the North Shore from 1999 to 2007, and 2010 to Aug. 18.

Flaherty first joined the Xaverian Brothers in September 1979 and took his vows after a year of training in 1980. He taught at Mount St. Joseph in Baltimore from 1980 to 1993, and then again from 2008 to 2010, according to a statement from the Xaverian Brothers.

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.