AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Jared Owens
Reporter
Canberra
A PEDOPHILE Catholic brother was allowed to continue working as a school principal, even after he was charged with 24 counts of child sexual abuse in the 1990s.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this morning commenced a hearing into the Marist Brothers’ dealings with two pedophile teachers John Chute and Gregory Sutton accused of collectively abusing 69 girls and boys at numerous schools across NSW, Queensland and Canberra.
Counsel assisting the commission Simeon Beckett, in his opening address, that senior Marists were repeatedly warned about both Chute and Sutton, and both admitted wrongdoing, but allowed them to continue teaching.
Sutton was “sent for counselling” to the Southdown Institute, a residential care facility in Canada, after revealing wrongdoing to a senior Marist, Alexis Turton, in 1989.
Police in Australia meanwhile issued 24 warrants for his arrest between 1992 and 1993.
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