When the hidden-denied reasons behind your childhood of multifaceted #childsexualabuse becomes known more clearly, whatâs holding you back from responding alike âthe reason Iâve grown so f-ed up, is due to your f-ing parent-church-school-club you took me throughâ?! #nrsđŁ
Amongst the growing amount of public acknowledgment, that âthose foreign cases of #childabuseâ are in fact happening within their own neighbourhood, at their own school, or âworst stillâ to their own children – itâs understandable that some parentâs concerns wonât be for that safety of their own victimised child, but for themselves to be able to reclaim âwasted moniesâ. As we now live in a consumerist society, occasionally we hear of broken families, where their sole-concern is in filling their own hip pockets with some of that đ°, as fractures often occur in these horse-or-cart structures. (Experienced Satire)
As examples of some Private/Elite schools in Brisbane whoâve offered out some damages-compensation-(not hush money), here are some examples + links:
As these were just a handful of examples of how a church-founded country of Australia, can be dealing with immersed control of a tax-free body, whilst still battling for equal rights of colonial-Indigenous after-effects – there are many more layers to unpack!
This article is more than 3 months old
Judge finds Australian Catholic order should not benefit from its âown inactionâ in not speaking to known abuser before he died
@knauscFri 5 May 2023 12.56 AEST
A Catholic order has lost its latest attempt to use the death of a known paedophile clergy member to shield itself from allegations of child sexual abuse after a judge found that allowing such a course would âbring the administration of justice into disreputeâ.
In recent months, the Guardian has revealed how the Catholic church, in particular its Marist Brothers and Christian Brothers orders, is increasingly using the deaths of clergy members to argue for permanent stays of cases brought by abuse survivors in the civil courts.
The church, which for decades covered up sexual abuse and thwarted justice for victims and survivors, has been emboldened by a win in New South Walesâs highest court last year, which found a perpetratorâs death made a fair trial impossible.
In a more recent case, the Marist Brothers argued that the death of notorious paedophile Brother Francis âRomualdâ Cable rendered it unable to fairly defend itself from a civil claim by a survivor known by the pseudonym of Mark Peters, because it can no longer call Cable as a witness.
The Marist Brothers made that argument despite the fact that Cable was alive for 22 months after Peters first notified it of his claim. After learning of Petersâs claim in October 2020, it did nothing to seek a response from Cable before he died in September 2022. Cable was 88 years old and behind bars when the Marist Brothers learned of the impending case.
On Friday, the NSW supreme court rejected the churchâs attempts to use Cableâs death to justify a permanent stay.
âThe defendant should not, in my view, have the benefit of its own inaction,â justice Nicholas Chen found.
âThe defendantâs alleged inability to meaningfully deal with the claim is, I find, a product of its own unreasonable failure to attempt to make contact with Cable, and to take steps to secure his evidence.
âIn my view, to accept otherwise would, adopting what was said by [former chief justice Thomas Bathurst], âitself bring the administration of justice into disreputeâ.â
Court documents allege the Marist Brothers have known of abuse complaints against Cable since 1967, but concealed his crimes from police and other authorities for decades and instead shuffled him between its schools, where he continued to abuse children.
The Marist Brothers argued to the court that it didnât seek a response from Cable to Petersâs allegations while he was alive because he had earlier rebuffed them in 2015 and said he did not want to have any more contact with the orderâs leadership team.
But the court rejected that submission for five separate reasons. It found that 2015 was a particularly sensitive time for Cable, given he had just been convicted for child abuse and was awaiting sentence, meaning he may have been more likely to want to talk five years later, if the Marist Brothers had attempted to contact him again.
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The court also found that Cable may have been willing to talk to a lawyer or investigator, rather than a member of Maristâs leadership team.
Cable had also subsequently pleaded guilty to a raft of other child abuse charges in the period after the Marist Brothers approached him in 2015. He knew he would likely be in jail until he died, the court found. That âsuggests that Cable, if contacted, may well have agreed to discuss what happened to the plaintiffâ.
âAt an absolute minimum, I consider that the defendant should have attempted â on an ongoing basis â contact with Cable following the letter notifying the defendant of the plaintiffâs intent to commence proceedings in 2020, and those steps should have been intensified once proceedings had been commenced,â Chen ruled.
âAs it happens, nothing was done by the defendant to ascertain whether Cable would speak to them, their lawyers or investigators about the plaintiffâs claim.
âI do not accept that the defendant can simply stand back and do nothing, which is what has occurred here.â
It is unclear whether the Marist Brothers will attempt to appeal the ruling. But the win allows Peters to proceed with his case and either agree to a settlement or take it to trial.
ABC Radio Brisbane, By Antonia O’Flaherty
Posted Fri 19 Mar 2021 at 12:33pmFriday 19 Mar 2021 at 12:33pm, updated Fri 19 Mar 2021 at 11:30pmFriday 19 Mar 2021 at 11:30pm
The school captain of one of Brisbane’s top private boys’ schools has called on his peers to put an end to rape culture and be proactive in stopping the sexual assault and harassment of women.
Brisbane Boys College (BBC) captain Mason Black made the resounding speech in front of peers on Thursday, calling on them to “accept this injustice against women and stand up for what is right”.
It follows thousands of Australian students anonymously detailing harrowing accounts of rape and sexual assault on a viral petition calling for sexual consent to be taught earlier in schools.
The petition was launched by former Kamabala student Chanel Contos.
BBC was among the Queensland public and private schools identified on the petition in testimonies from young women.
A video of Mr Black’s speech calling for a change in culture at the college and broader society, has attracted about 260,000 views on Instagram and tens of thousands on Facebook.
In his speech, Mr Black revealed his mother had been sexually abused at just 10-years of age.
“Are you brave enough to ask your mum about her experiences? What about your sisters? Friends?” he said.
“I wish I grew up in an Australia where the narrative that one in three women will be physically or sexually abused at some point in their life wasn’t true, but it is.”
It comes as the Queensland government undertakes a review of sexual consent education in both public and independent schools across the state.
Hear Natalie Hamam’s interview with Life Matters’ Amanda Smith
Mr Black also made reference to NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller’s idea for an app to record sexual consent.
“What you really need is a basic acceptance and respect, and that, boys, is on all of us,” he said.
“Boys, if a woman wants to say ‘no’, and she says ‘no’, we have to listen, understand and accept this.”
Mr Black said the deeply-ingrained rape culture within society needed to be addressed.
“As good as this message is coming from public speakers or staff, it’s up to us, the boys.
“They need to accept this injustice against women and stand up for what is right.”
He said it made him feel “sick” and “embarrassed” that the school had been named in the testimonies.
“I feel so ashamed that this issue is a part of our history and our culture.
“I feel ashamed that the action of some reflects poorly on us all, but realistically it isn’t just those who are mentioned in the media.
“If you have ever objectified a woman based on her looks, talked about females in a misogynistic way, or taken advantage without consent, you are part of the problem.
“Seemingly harmless comments can have such devastating effects.”
He called on his peers to “stop being boys” and “be human”.
“Every person in this room must not just be an advocate for equality, but in our every action and deed we have to be proactive in stopping the abuse.”
The student called on his peers to put an end to slurs and derogatory comments, to stand up to “any man” if they see it happening, and keep their mates accountable.
“Each and every one of us have an obligation to each other to not follow the ways of the past, and to take our future on a new path,” he said.
The speech was lauded on social media for inspiring a change in culture but drew some criticism that the same attitudes were not held among his peers.
One 16-year-old Brisbane schoolgirl, Anya, voiced her frustration that the speech had received so much praise “over the voices of millions of women around the world, some of whom in recent weeks have had the courage to be vulnerable when sharing their past experiences with sexual assault”.
“It’s been widely recognised a massive part of the problem is the way men are praised for doing the bare minimum yet women are compelled to overcompensate for their lack to “keep them safe”, her post on Instagram said.
Posted 19 Mar 202119 Mar 2021, updated 19 Mar 2021
An explosive new website names hundreds of Australian schools where students say thereâs a disturbing problem.
4 min read
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Duration 1:09AirplayFullscreen
Chanel Contos speaks with TODAY after her petition to change consent education in schools went viral.
WARNING: Distressing
Thousands of students from across every part of Australia have spoken out about a chilling culture of normalised rape and sexual assault â as pressure grows for systemic change.
Since being overwhelmed by the response to her petition â calling for earlier and more holistic sexual education lessons â Sydneysider Chanel Contos has received more than 4000 testimonies from students in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and NSW.
Overnight, she launched a website where the disturbing accounts are beginning to be made public for the first time.
There are already more than 1500 testimonies on the website â and many of them bear eerie similarities to the vile stories that emerged from Sydney schoolsshortly after the petition first went live.
In many of the freshly-uploaded accounts, students say they were raped while unconscious at parties or woke up to being touched by someone inappropriately.
MELBOURNE SCHOOLS MENTIONED
Many of the new testimonies come from Melbourne schools, where students say there is a similar culture to the chauvinistic club-like mentality reported in some Sydney all-boys schools in the initial testimonies.
One former student at Carey Grammar School said she was 16 and at a party when she smoked her first joint and passed out on a bed.
âI thought Iâd be safe as the host went to my school,â she said, recounting the incident in 2012. âInstead he came in and got into bed with me.â
She said the boy then started digitally penetrating her, and wouldnât stop even though she repeatedly asked him to.
She said a friend of the boy entered the room and âjoined inâ â before spreading rumours around the school about the victimâs body.
RELATED: Dark secret at some of Sydneyâs most elite schools
RELATED:Single-sex vs co-ed: Theory behind worrying sexual assault trend
âWhen I told my ex boyfriend a few years later he told me I asked for it and shouldnât have laid down,â she said. âThereâs so much wrong to this story.â
In another testimony, a former Firbank Grammar School student said she and her mates were invited to a âmassive party of about 500 peopleâ when she was in year 9.
âIt was one of my first experiences drinking a lot and I was vomiting at the back of the party and going in and out of consciousness,â she said. âI donât remember anything but the next day I found an Instagram picture of me passed out next to my vomit with a guy I donât know with his hands up my dress.â
She said the St Kevinâs College studentâs friends took pictures and posted them online.
âI reported the photo every day for a long time before it was removed and it still terrifies me that lots of people I donât know have that photo,â she said. âI also donât know what else was done to me that night because I donât remember.â
âRAPE CULTUREâ BEING EXPOSED
The disturbing accounts are just some of hundreds that have been uploaded overnight, and Ms Contos told news.com.au that thousands more will be uploaded soon.
âIâm really excited that this is reaching different states because once these stories start coming out in other parts of the country, I think we will see the same response weâve seen in NSW,â she said.
âThe more people that come forward, the more it will help the cause and it will expose the rape culture in our society.â
RELATED:Chilling story shows dark problem with porn
RELATED:Vile sex assault claims rock elite schools in Victoria and Queensland
Private Sydney schools in particular were mentioned time and time again in the initial testimonies, and Ms Contos said she was already seeing positive signs that schools and MPs in the city were taking the petition seriously.
She is meeting with several headmasters in the schools mentioned tomorrow as well as Liberal MP for Wentworth Dave Sharma â who has thrown his support behind the campaign.
âAs the response to this petition makes clear, weâve all got to do better in educating our children, at home and in our schools,â Mr Sharma said.
PARENTS PULL STUDENTS OUT OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS
As the pressure grows for systemic change, itâs clear some parents arenât willing to wait.
Some of those who sent their boys to Sydney private schools mentioned in the petition have spoken out, and some have reportedly sent their children to other schools.
One father of a year 9 student at Kings School in Parramatta told the Sun-Heraldelite schools cultivated a culture of entitlement and privilege, which he said leads to a lack of âsensitivityâ towards others.
âThey teach these kids theyâre the best, theyâre the chosen ones, theyâre going to run Australia, theyâre going to conquer the world,â he said.
The parent said he chose the private school for his son to give him a better chance, but worried he and his wife would struggle to teach the child to be empathetic towards others.
News.com.au has contacted the school for comment.
MELBOURNE SCHOOLS RESPOND
Meanwhile, Melbourne schools mentioned in the new testimonies have expressed their concern.
The body representing some of Melbourneâs most prestigious Catholic schools â including St Kevinâs College, Parade College, St Maryâs College, St Josephâs College and St Bernardâs College â said the petition had pushed them to take action and signalled they would work with parents to address the issue.
âThe powerful testimonies provided by the many young women in the online petition are disturbing and are an indictment on societal decency,â said Edmund Rice Education Australia executive director Dr Craig Wattam.
âAll of us â schools, families, and the broader community â must carefully consider and revisit issues pertaining to sex education.
âMore specifically, sexual consent education is required for both young men and women and we need to be providing this education in early adolescence.â
News.com.au has also reached out to Carey Grammar School for comment.
To sign the petition, visit Ms Contosâ new website
March 05, 20215:01 pm
Stephanie Bennett | The Courier-Mail
Queenslandâs most prestigious boysâ schools have been rocked by graphic allegations of rape and sexual assault committed by current and former students, with private school girls publishing shocking claims online.
Allegations against Brisbane Grammar School, Brisbane Boysâ College, Toowoomba Grammar School, Nudgee College, St Josephâs College Gregory Terrace, Anglican Church Grammar School and St Laurenceâs College students are among the thousands of testimonies posted on a viral petition calling for earlier education on sexual consent.
Petition creator Sydney student Chanel Contosâ call for victims to share stories of sexual assaults perpetrated by all-boysâ school students in an effort to highlight ârape cultureâ has resulted in more than 4000 responses from across the county.
Ms Contos said distressing stories from Queensland girls quickly flooded in after the petition was shared widely on social media.
One posted by a former All Hallowsâ student alleges she was raped by a boy from the prestigious St Laurenceâs School in Brisbane, while a second All Hallowsâ student claims she was coerced into losing her virginity to a Churchie boy and woke up âcovered in bloodâ.
Another wrote there were âmultiple occasions with various students from St Laurenceâs and St Josephâs College Gregory Terrace â I learnt the hard way about consent.
âI was raped and left in the dark, bleeding between my legs as I was robbed of my virginity. âIt was painful and I didnât tell anyone because I was ashamed.â
A claim by a former Stuartholme student alleges she was raped at a party by a Terrace student.
âEveryone at that party including my âfriendsâ at the time let me get drunkenly led into that room and no one did anything to intervene,â the post states.
Another Stuartholme student wrote she was coerced into having sex by an older boy and âeventually gave inâ.
A post claiming to be from a former St Aidanâs Anglican Girls School student alleges she was raped in Year 9 by a Year 10 Nudgee College student.
âImmediately after the assault I told a friend and she slut shamed me and told me I was âtoo drunkâ and asked âwhat did you expectâ,â it read.
A fellow St Aidanâs student wrote she was âdigitally rapedâ at a school dance by a Brisbane Boysâ College student while his friends laughed.
Ms Contos said while the majority of responses to her petition referenced private boysâ schools, she believed similar stories were happening âin every school in Australiaâ.
âBut the issue is heightened in same sex schools because itâs not an adequate representation of reality,â she said.
âYou often only see the opposite sex on the weekend, when the main goal is having a story to tell on Monday.â
Ms Contos said while she had been in touch with politicians from New South Wales and Victoria in regards to the disturbing nature of the allegations, no one from the Queensland government had yet attempted to contact her.
Headmasters and principals expressed their horror at the allegations, and said they were committed to enhancing programs focused on educating their students on consent and respectful sexual relationships.
Brisbane Grammar School headmaster Anthony Micallef yesterday wrote to parents he was âappalledâ by the accounts.
âWhile every school has programs to educate students about respectful relationships, drugs and alcohol, and the issue of consent, every parent and educator fears that young people may still make terrible decisions that have lifelong consequences,â Mr Micallef said.
âThe traumatic experiences the young women describe in the online petition, and the behaviours perpetrated by young men, suggest this issue is ongoing and must be addressed.â
Churchie headmaster Alan Campbell also issued a letter to parents, stating as a boys school they had a âspecial responsibilityâ to educate boys to grow to be good men who will respect women and men equally.
He said sexual consent was taught and discussed in Year 9 and Year 12.
Toowoomba Grammar Headmaster John Kinniburgh commended the girls for âstanding up and speaking out.â
âNo person, regardless of age or gender, should ever be subjected to unwanted sexual or peer group pressure,â he said.
âTGS has programs in place that teach students about respectful relationships, consent and the criminal nature of sexual harassment and assault.â
St Josephâs College, Gregory Terrace principal Michael Carroll said the schoolâs sex education began in Year 5 and 6, with consent addressed directly with Years 10, 11 and 12.
âWe have been developing a stronger focus on respectful relations over the past 12-18 months at Terrace and this has been a significant stimulus to create a narrower focus around age-appropriate discussions about sex education and in particular, consent in sex,â he said.
A teacher at an elite school viewed âsadisticâ videos for sexual gratification, including children forced into sexual acts under gunpoint.
Nathan Schmidt@Nate_R_Schmidty
May 11, 2023 – 3:29PM NCA NewsWire
WARNING: Distressing
A senior teacher at one of Sydneyâs most prestigious schools used his work laptop to access a stash of âdepravedâ child abuse images.
Cody Michael Reynolds, 37, will spend the next 18 months behind bars after being sentenced at Downing Centre Court on Tuesday, more than a year after he was stood down from a prestigious role at Moriah College in Sydneyâs eastern suburbs, where parents pay about $35,000 a year.
Police arrested Reynolds following a raid of his inner city home in March 2022. Officers uncovered a cache of child abuse material on multiple devices and online storage service Megalcoud, including at least 1000 child abuse images and 50 videos.
Investigators uncovered a further 111 images and six videos on Reynoldsâ iPhone in a folder hidden on the phoneâs camera roll as well as nine images and two videos on his work-assigned laptop.
Cody Michael Reynolds, the former head of English at Moriah College, arrives for sentencing on child abuse material charges. Picture: Simon Bullard
Judge Phillip Mahoney told the court the material was âdepravedâ and showed mostly pre-pubescent males and females aged between 9-16 masturbating or performing sex acts, including with adults.
âThe material included sadistic material where children are engaged in sexual activity under gunpoint,â Justice Mahoney said. âIn another, a four year old was forced to put his hand on the penis of an older boy.â
The court was told Reynolds used multiple aliases to share child abuse material with users through a concealed WhatsApp application, including an explicit conversation with a user called Xavier about âplaying with young boysâ.
âThe offender transferred videos to a like-minded user encouraging their own gratification,â Justice Mahoney said.
âHe deliberately used a sophisticated method, including end-to-end inscription, to minimise detection.â
Cody Reynolds formerly served as head of English at Moriah College.
Reynolds pleaded guilty late last year to using a carriage service to transmit, publish, or promote child abuse material and using a carriage service to possess or control child abuse material.
At the time of his arrest, Reynolds was head of English at Moriah College, a coeducational Modern Jewish Orthodox private school, but was stood down by the elite school within 24-hours of his arrest at his Surry Hills home.
During sentencing, the court was told how Reynold went from being a high-flying teacher presenting his academic studies in Australia and overseas to consuming child abuse material.
âReynolds would avoid going home to his partner and would instead sit in the storeroom of his apartment building drinking and viewing the child abuse material,â Justice Mahoney told the court.
âHe used it to cope with negative emotions (…) rather than develop healthy coping mechanisms.â
Justice Mahoney said Reynolds had âdone everythingâ to seek out rehabilitation after being charged,
Cody Reynolds used his work laptop to access a stash of âdepravedâ child abuse images. Picture: Damian Shaw
The 37-year-old was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at 21 and later with PTSD following his arrest.
Reynolds âacknowledged in hindsightâ the emotional harm that the offending had caused to children depicted in the videos.
The court was also told Reynolds had not met the criteria for a pedophilic disorder and co-operated with police following his arrest.
He was joined in court by his family, who had relocated to Sydney to support him.
Reynolds was sentenced to a total prison term of two years and 10 months.
But Justice Mahoney ordered that he be eligible for release from November 2024.
After that time, he will be required to pay $1000 and continue with rehabilitation treatment.
Something that becomes easier for some victims/survivors/oppressed/bad-eggs/outcasts to see is the hidden-truth, the dry wit, the âadult humourâ, âthings only grownups understandâ that they innately become both aware of & exposed to during their youth. I wanted to post this immediately after recognising patterns in âShe Saidâ. Many of the power+control methods exposed by this great work also reflect/mirror dynamics they continue throughout Institutions-Corporations-Societyâs-Families & personalities.
While Harvey Weinsteinâs âimprisonmentâ has triggered off other moments, reminders give hope to other truthâs being exposed.
Many other âparallelsâ appeared to me, which I gravitate to. Itâs not about whether itâs popular to others, itâs whether itâs meaningful to me, another was Spotlight which brought up reminders I was exposed to on a church youth camp! How blessed were we?!
Timed perfectly(?), an encounter with some graduates + a younger BBC student occurred on a train TWG-CEN: (eMail contents to BBC, OCA & QR)
/ / / Belatedly & with âitâs a generational thingâ regret as both an Old Boy, OCA-Bursary recipient & past BBC Teacherâs Aide
volunteer, the following results from a QR TWG-CEN ~3:43pm:
– QR/TransLink Concession Card Recepients (4/5 seniors, 1 green)- uniformed BBC Students ârepresent the school & should give the greatest (public) impressionâ (QR, BBC & OCA)- similar BBC Admin messages have been successfully enacted, yet âyounger learn from olderâ isnât practiced- passionate language was triggered, resulting from overall âuntouchable/innocentâ response(?) (predominately seniors)- immediate conversation with QR staff reinforced these âstudents from private schoolsâ conundrum.
Now would be a good time for BBC to seperate itself, from the herd-mentality. Otherwise, expecting ongoing feedback re: these matters.
By Danny Morgan
Posted Thu 4 Aug 2022 at 4:30pmThursday 4 Aug 2022 at 4:30pm, updated Yesterday at 5:58am
The Catholic Church is using a controversial legal tactic in a bid to be excused from a civil damages claim lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court involving Cardinal George Pell.
A man is suing the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and Cardinal Pell for damages, claiming he suffered nervous shock after learning of allegations Cardinal Pell sexually assaulted his son when he was a choirboy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne in 1996.
In 2018, Cardinal Pell was found guilty of the assault, but the High Court unanimously quashed the conviction in 2020.
The Cardinal has always maintained his innocence.
In a preliminary hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday, the Archdiocese indicated it wanted to rely on what is known as the ‘Ellis defence’ to be excused from the case.
The Ellis defence emerged out of a 2007 NSW Court of Appeal judgement that prevented an abuse survivor suing the Church because it was not a legal entity.
Survivors have long complained about the Church using the Ellis defence, and in 2018 the Victorian Parliament passed legislation that required unincorporated associations such as the Church to nominate an entity that is capable of being sued.
However, lawyers for the Archdiocese argued that legislation did not apply in this case because the father of the choirboy was not the primary victim of the alleged abuse.
The father’s barrister, Julian Burnside QC, disagreed, arguing the 2018 legislation applied to both primary victims and their families.
“What our learned friends’ submission amounts to is this: If the victim of child abuse dies, then the family has no remedy, they have no-one they can sue,” Mr Burnside said.
“Now that’s plainly wrong in our submission.”
Justice Michael McDonald has reserved his decision on whether to excuse the Archdiocese.
If the Archdiocese is excused, Cardinal Pell would remain a defendant.
In a letter to the court, solicitors for the Archdiocese indicated that, even if the Church avoided liability, it would still pay any damages should the judge find against Cardinal Pell.
“If the plaintiff is awarded damages against the second defendant [George Pell], the Archdiocese will ensure that the award is paid by indemnifying the second defendant in respect of the award,” the letter said.
The father of the choirboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, launched his case last month.
His son died of a drug overdose in 2014 and the father only learned of the allegations against Cardinal Pell the following year.
The father is claiming general damages, special damages and seeking compensation for past loss of earning capacity as well as past and future medical expenses.
His solicitor, Lisa Flynn, said the High Court’s decision to quash Cardinal Pell’s conviction would not affect the civil proceedings.
“The High Court made some decisions in relation to the criminal prosecution against [George] Pell. Our case is a civil case against George Pell and the Catholic Archdiocese,” she said.
RETRIEVED
Morgan, Danny. (2022). Cardinal George Pell Civil Case Catholic Archdiocese. Retrieved https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-04/cardinal-george-pell-civil-case-catholic-archdiocese/101301514. ABC News, Australia.