Northern links in royal commission into child sexual abuse at Marist Brothers school

AUSTRALIA
Cairns Post

JESSICA MARSZALEK THE CAIRNS POST JUNE 11, 2014

TWO former teachers from a North Queensland school and at least two ex-students will be witnesses at a royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The inquiry is sitting in Canberra to consider whether the Marist Brothers ignored repeated reports and suspicions of abuse by two long-serving brothers, choosing instead to move them on to new schools.

The 16-person witness list for the 10-day commission ­includes a former teacher and a former principal of a Marist Brothers school in North Queensland.

It also lists two former ­students of the school, which has not been named.

The inquiry yesterday heard that a self-confessed paedophile was allowed to teach in NSW and the ACT for 40 years during which he allegedly assaulted nearly 50 boys ­despite repeatedly ­admitting his ­actions to ­superiors.

It heard Brother John Chute taught from 1952 to 1993, despite admitting to four cases of abuse when children came forward ­between 1960 and 1972. Despite these admissions, he went on to teach for 17 years at Marist College Canberra, which 39 of his 48 alleged victims attended.

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