(AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - ABC [Sydney, Australia]
July 16, 2025
By Loretta Lohberger
In short:
A law firm is planning to launch a class action in the Supreme Court of Tasmania against the Christian Brothers, over alleged “serious physical abuse” of students at Hobart’s St Virgil’s College in the 1970s and 80s.
During a civil trial in the Supreme Court in Hobart in March, former students gave evidence about alleged harsh corporal punishment.
What’s next?
Lawyer Angela Sdrinis says she hopes to launch the action by early next year.
When Simon* was a student at a Catholic boys’ school in Hobart in the 1970s, he says the school was run in an “archaic, cruel” manner.
He said one of the teachers had a name for the strap that he would use to hit students.
“He used to call it Horace, and he used to have a little rhyme he used to recite as he strapped you,” Simon said.
“It used to be: ‘Horace hit his head with a hard, hard hammer and it hurt horribly’.
“And he’d just go faster and faster and faster, and harder, until he’d just lose his way and then he’d give up.”
The school was St Virgil’s College, which, until the late 1980s or early 1990s, was run by the Christian Brothers.
“Not only with myself, but witnessing other students being strapped … I used to think, ‘these teachers are just enjoying this’,” Simon said.
“It was almost like every day they were trying to find excuses to strap people, to have their own little moment.”
During a civil trial in the Supreme Court in Hobart in March, another man alleged he was sexually and physically abused while a student at St Virgil’s in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Christian Brothers offered a settlement part way through the trial, which was accepted by the man, and the trial was aborted.
Several former St Virgil’s students gave evidence during the trial about alleged harsh corporal punishment at the school at the time.
The man’s lawyer, Bruce McTaggart SC, also told the court of a “culture of fear” at the school at the time.
He told the court St Virgil’s had a room known among students and staff as the “crying room”, where corporal punishment was administered.
Lawyer Angela Sdrinis, director of Angela Sdrinis Legal, said that after the trial, several former students who had either experienced or witnessed alleged serious physical abuse sought advice about whether they might also have a viable claim against the Christian Brothers.
“As a result of all of that and further people coming forward, we are looking at pursuing a class action in relation to the physical abuse which allegedly occurred at the school,” Ms Sdrinis said.
It is expected that a class action would include allegations from the 1970s and 1980s.
Solicitor at Angela Sdrinis Legal, Ellen FitzGerald, said the Christian Brothers started to leave the school, or were pulled out, towards the late 1980s, “and things seemed to have improved”.
“But certainly the culture was one of violence and fear from at least the 60s onwards,” Ms FitzGerald said.
“That culture just generally, and the conduct of the Christian Brothers and the lay teachers, was completely inconsistent with the Christian Brothers’ own policies, and beyond corporal punishment even compared to the standards of the time.”
So far, 10 people, including Simon, have come forward with allegations.
“We’re collecting records, we’ve got a team of barristers who we’ve retained to work on the class action,” Ms Sdrinis said.
“There’s a bit more information that we need to obtain, but other than that, we should be ready to go potentially by the end of the year, but certainly early next year.”
The action would be filed with the Supreme Court in Hobart.
‘It’s about bringing them to accountability’
Simon said the corporal punishment he was subjected to affected his education and his career trajectory.
“I was a very astute, academic-type student right through my early years, right from year 9 and going into year 10, [I] wanted to be an engineer, already planning university, my parents were already putting plans into place for that because my dad was very proud of wanting me to go to uni,” he said.
But he said the way he was treated led to a strong dislike of his teachers and, ultimately, to him losing interest in his schooling.
“When it culminated in me getting expelled in year 11, I just fell out of school and ended up going through the trade lines for many years,” he said.
Later in life, Simon went to university and earned a diploma and then a bachelor’s degree.
“I got to where I wanted to be at 55 rather than at 22 or 23 so it was always there, it was just a matter of reigniting it, I suppose,” he said.
He said he wanted the Christian Brothers organisation held accountable for the actions of some of their brothers and the lay teachers they employed, many of whom have since died.
“The majority of these people are not able to be personally reprimanded for their actions, but they were operating under the umbrella of the Christian Brothers.
“So, that umbrella ultimately has the responsibility for their actions … I want the general public to know what a lot of students, as well as myself, went through for this period and how it affected us.
“It’s about bringing them to accountability as an organisation and hopefully to protect people into the future.”
Simon said he was also speaking out on behalf of others who were not able to.
“I’ve spoken to two past students in particular who I knew were treated much worse than I and, as much as they would like to come forward, they just can’t because their mind is so traumatised by it all, they just can’t re-live it.”
‘Serious’ physical abuse claims
In 2018, Tasmania removed the time limit for bringing claims of child sexual abuse or “serious” physical abuse of a child.
“It will be about this distinction between physical abuse and serious physical abuse,” Ms Sdrinis said.
“I think it will be the first time that the issue will be considered in a court of law in an historical child abuse matter.”
The ABC asked the Christian Brothers Oceania Province if it wished to make any comment about “allegations of serious physical abuse relating to corporal punishment at [St Virgil’s] in the 1970s and 80s”.
A spokesperson said:
“The Christian Brothers Oceania Province has not been provided with any specific detail of what is alleged except that no claim has been filed with any court, and consequently, we are unable to comment.”
*Name has been changed.