(AUSTRALIA)
The Examiner [Launceston, Tasmania, Australia]
March 15, 2024
By Miklos Bolza
Just over a month after being found guilty of sexually abusing his students through crimes dating back 65 years, a former Catholic teacher has died.
Peter Mervyn Samuel passed away on Christmas Day.
He was due to face a sentence hearing in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on March 8 over the historical child sex offences.
At a jury trial in November, prosecutors said he had abused three boys between 10 and 13 years old between 1958 and 1972.
The assaults took place while Samuel was teaching year-six classes at two Patrician Brothers’ College campuses in Blacktown and Granville, and Marist Brothers Primary School in Mosman.
Samuel, who was in his mid-90s at the time, fought the allegations.
However on November 14, jurors found him guilty of eight counts of indecent assault on a male.
He was found not guilty of one count of buggery.
At the trial, jurors heard Samuel had pleaded guilty in 1999 to indecently assaulting another boy in 1972 in similar circumstances to the more recent allegations he faced.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028