AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JOANNE McCARTHY June 12, 2015
THE Catholic Education Office provided a record of service statement for a sacked lay teacher and convicted child sex offender in 1979, but did not report him to police, after it was allegedly told he had sexually abused four children.
Former St Patricks Sutherland principal Brother Anthony Whelan, who retired as director of Broken Bay Catholic Schools Office in 2012, told a church investigator in 2010 that he reported ‘‘sexual misconduct’’ by teacher Thomas Keady to the Catholic Education Sydney Office in 1979 and was advised to ‘‘summarily dismiss’’ Keady.
The investigation was terminated by the Christian Brothers before Catholic Education Office records could be obtained or witnesses interviewed.
Brother Whelan did not report the allegations against Keady to police in 1979, and said he advised the 12- and 13-year-old male students to tell their parents.
The 2010 church investigation was launched after Hunter man and Keady victim Rob Roseworne complained to Maitland-Newcastle diocese.
On Wednesday Mr Roseworne lodged a submission with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about the church’s handling of Keady, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision in 2013 not to charge Brother Whelan with concealing Keady’s offences because it was ‘‘not in the public interest’’, despite a prima facie case against him.
After Brother Whelan wrote to the Catholic Education Office about whether Keady was entitled to a statement of service, the office responded with a statement noting Keady had been employed as a full-time teacher at the school from 1966 to 1979. It did not say he had been sacked or make any reference to child sex allegations.
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