Revelation (2020): Season 1, Episode 2 - A Dangerous Place To Be A Child - full transcript

SARAH FERGUSON: Old men
in glass boxes.

They remind me
of ageing war criminals

dragged before the courts
in their dotage.

Catholic priest Father Vincent Ryan.

There were many boys
that you sexually molested.

Yes.
Over many years.

Yes.

Bernard McGrath, a brother
from the Order of St John of God.

Bernard McGrath has a sexual
interest in boys.

He's acted on that sexual interest

by engaging in sexual activity
with boys



who were under his authority.

Their parallel trials in 2019

expose the details
of historical crimes

against scores of boys

in the notorious
Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

A number of the complainants gave
evidence of offending

that included anal penetration
and included oral penetration.

Both men were protected for decades
by their superiors.

Father Ryan found his victims,
many of them altar boys,

among his congregation.

MAN: In that sacristy after church,
they could do whatever they wanted

and nobody would come in there.

The crimes of Brother Bernard
were mostly committed

in schools run by St John of God,



where he admits boys were controlled
by a regime of absolute fear.

The last thing I'll say
is that there's fairly vivid images

in a lot of the victims' minds...
I know.

..which are of their backsides
bleeding

after being sodomised by you,

screaming, crying,
wetting their beds,

they were petrified in their sleep.

I am not in denial
and I am not blocking it out.

Do you remember the circumstances
of your interview

with Sean Buckley in Christchurch?

Oh, I'll never forget it.

Boys holding other boys down...
No, no, no.

You committing all sorts
of gross indecencies on them.

One screamed at me while
the other was stroking my hand,

saying, "Unload yourself, Bernard."

I can still seem him
stroking my hand,

"Do you believe in the Bible?"

Yeah I'm not saying
you're telling lies.

I'm not saying that at all.
I'm not...

I don't know why.

I honestly don't know why.

"Unload yourself, Bernard."

It's Easter week in Dublin.

Many years before Australia's
Royal Commission,

Ireland had its own legal reckoning
with the Catholic Church,

once the country's
most powerful institution.

I've come here
to see how the church is dealing

with its own complicity
in child sexual abuse and cover-up

after more than a decade
of judicial inquiries.

MAN: The Catholic Church doesn't
have moral authority anymore.

It certainly has
no political authority.

For a very long time,

it was the supreme political
authority in this country.

I, like all of my peers, grew up
in an Ireland

that was dominated and controlled
by the Roman Catholic Church.

I went to Catholic schools because
all of our schools were Catholic.

My high school,
my second-level school,

was a Christian Brothers school.

The youth group I went to took...
took place in a convent.

I sang at Mass on Sundays.

So, the entire fabric of your life...

Was wrapped up in and around
the Catholic Church.

WOMAN: It was taken for granted
you're a Catholic, really.

And if you were a Catholic,

it was so interwoven with the state,
with the laws, with society.

And people didn't really
question at all.

You know, if...if a priest said
something, you didn't question it.

These were the people who knew,

these were the people
who are our moral guardians.

Today is Holy Thursday,

known as the birthday of
the priests.

Each year on this day,
priests come to renew their vows

in the Chrism Mass.

Before the Archbishop of Dublin,
these men will recommit themselves

as faithful stewards
of the mysteries of God.

MAN: Are you resolved be
more united with the Lord Jesus?

ALL: I am.

Even as he blesses his priests,

Diarmuid Martin knows
there's no going back

to the church that bore him up
to this high office.

We're beyond breaking point.

But it's not...it's never
going to be the same church.

Nor should we want it to be
the same church.

I'm brought back to the strong words
that Pope Francis

addressed to the Irish bishops.

He said, "Do not repeat
the attitudes

"of aloofness and clericalism,

"which at times in your history
have given a real image

"of an authoritarian, harsh
and autocratic church."

Nature of clericalism is this idea,
"We're a group.

"We look after one another."

And there's not only that,
but we look after one another

but where we
are...we're superior to you.

We...we're holy people.
We're men of God.

And therefore,
don't be challenging us.

The unravelling of the God-given
personal power of these men

really began with
one child-abusing priest.

NEWSREADER: This case, described by
the judge as unique in recent times,

has shocked Ireland to its core.

Before Father Brendan Smyth,

no-one had ever
seen an Irish priest in handcuffs.

Smyth was extradited to Belfast

to face trial
for indecently assaulting children.

For years, the church had hidden him

with the support
of the Attorney-General.

The resulting scandal
brought down the government.

The Irish taboo on pursuing
the sex crimes of priests

had been broken.

At 14 years of age,
I'm raped by a priest.

That's impossible.

You know, that can't have happened.

If that's true,
if what had happened happened,

then everything I've been told
about the world as a child is a lie.

Colm O'Gorman was one of 29 boys

molested and raped
by Father Sean Fortune.

Well, I was told
the priests were good,

that they were beyond reproach.

I mean, beyond reproach.

They were manifestations
of God on Earth, practically.

So, I was a 14-year-old kid.

It's my fault.

Everything...everything conspired

to create a situation
where this was my fault

and where the way forward was
to take on all of the shame.

So, I became the thing
that was done to me.

I believed, I knew that I was foul
and corrupt and disgusting.

I became everything that
that man did to me for decades.

O'Gorman's work
as a victim's advocate

led to the four-year-long inquiry,

which found that 21 priests
in the Ferns Diocese

had abused hundreds of children.

MAN: I want,
on behalf of the government,

to condemn the gross dereliction
of duties

of those in positions of trust
in the Diocese of Ferns.

It was clear to me that we were
going to be dealing with

very significant numbers
of victims,

but also very significant
numbers of offenders

and just a quite extraordinary
cover-up

on the part of the church

and certainly very significant
failings on the part of the state.

But it was the beginning.
It was the beginning of that.

It felt very much
like the beginning of that.

And we knew that...at that point,

we knew we'd secured
other inquiries -

a big one here in Dublin
and others - would follow.

Those commissions told the truth.

They opened that up to those of us
who were in ignorance of that.

A church that should have told us,
didn't tell us,

did everything to avoid telling us.

MAN: For the Catholics of Australia,

it was the long inquiries,
diocese by diocese in Ireland,

of the horrors of the church there,

and those inquiries
made it so possible,

so likely that the same
was happening here

because they were brother churches.

This was not a foreign country
like America.

It was Ireland.

The grand residence
of Dublin's archbishop

is a reminder of the church's power
before the fall.

As the new archbishop,
Diarmuid Martin insisted

on opening up the church's archives
to the Murphy Commission

investigating his own diocese.

All I can say is
I provided the Murphy Commission

with 70,000 documents.

I hope that when I come
to St. Peter and he's, um...

..has the weighing scales

that the...70,000 documents
will bring it one way.

I don't feel that I am better
or worse than anybody else,

but I couldn't have sat
in chairs like this

and listened to people
without saying,

"We have to
get to the root of this."

You know, the truth has to come out.

And in the long term,
the truth does free you

even when it's unpalatable truth.

With the Australian Catholic Church

now facing
its own unpalatable truths,

Archbishop Martin recalls
the profound historical links

between the two churches.

My predecessor, Cardinal Connell,
in the...in the 19th century,

he'd get a cable from Rome saying,
"Find me a bishop for Maitland."

Lots of lots of priests
went out at one stage.

Let me give you some names.

McAlinden, McGrath, Ryan, Farrell,
O'Hearn, O'Donnell, Claffey, Keenan.

These are just some of
Australia's worst offenders.

Yeah.

Do you have any theories as to why

so many of these priests and brothers
have Irish heritage?

Was there something
in the Irish church?

Um...you know, I think it's a...
it's a question that is justified.

The Irish church
was an authoritarian

and a harsh church.

You know, if you combine
child sexual abuse by priests

with the harsh treatment
of children in orphanages,

with the harsh treatment of women
in institutions

and unmarried mothers and so on,

then you have to ask, "What was it?"

So profound was the influence
of Irish Catholicism in Australia

that the church here became known
as the mother church.

An exodus of priests and brothers
left from here

to fill the pulpits of Australia

and to teach in church-run schools.

So, when the judicial commissions
here began to tear apart

the culture of secrecy in the church,

revealing longstanding patterns
of abuse and cover-up,

the aftershocks
were deeply felt in Australia.

Of course, we now know
those patterns of behaviour

were exactly mirrored in our country
down to the finest detail.

A few hours north of Sydney,

in the one-time industrial heartland
of New South Wales,

is the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese -

an historical stronghold
of Catholicism.

MAN: Like most of Australia,

the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese
was, for many years,

substantially
an Irish Catholic population.

Many of the clergy would
have come from Ireland

well into the 20th century.

Here for many decades,

an astonishing cluster
of paedophile priests and brothers

were given free rein
to wreak havoc on children.

So, in the '70s, in Hamilton,

that the Marist Brothers, who had
about seven paedophiles on staff,

including the headmaster,
Brother Christopher Wade...

500 metres away,
you had the Sacred Heart Church,

where you had Father Vince Ryan,

a notorious paedophile,
stationed for years.

And then a few kilometres away
in Adamstown,

you had St Pius X College

where you had Father Tom Brennan
was the principal.

He had multiple paedophiles
on his staff.

Father John Denham
and Ted Hall,

both of whom are currently in jail.

And then up the valley, 20km away,
you had Maitland Marist Brothers,

where the principal brother
Nestor Littler was a paedophile

and he had multiple Marist brothers
on his staff that were paedophiles.

And at the bottom of the diocese
at Morisset,

you had Kendall Grange,
the St. John of God school...

..which was completely
full of paedophiles.

And in between all of these places,

you had the priests
and multiple paedophiles

all throughout the diocese
preying on children.

WOMAN: Being a young Catholic
in Newcastle-Maitland at that time

was a dangerous thing to be.

It was dangerous to be a male child
going to these schools.

And the amount of victims,
survivors,

that have come out of there
is astronomical.

It's hard to imagine this old man

is one of Australia's worst
serial paedophiles,

but his victims keep coming forward
to remind us.

Haunted by their memories of
what he did to them as children.

For nearly three decades,
Father Vincent Ryan preyed on boys

in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese.

Now in his 80s...

..Ryan is on trial again.

MAN: I suggest to you that
you got an altar boy robe for him

and suggested that he get undressed,

take off his shirt and shorts,
and put the altar boy robe on.

Did that happen?
No.

After that, I suggest that
you put your hand under the robe

and inside his underwear
and started playing with his penis.

No.

Despite these specific denials,

Ryan has confessed to abusing
35 children, most of them altar boys.

It was possible to keep you
out of parishes

and away from small boys after
your offending was discovered.

Of course, and it should have been.

I should never have been put
in that position.

Ryan got away with these crimes
for so long

because he was enabled
by his superiors.

Investigations of the church cover-up
in this region

by journalist Joanne McCarthy

would lead eventually
to the Royal Commission.

It always starts
with the leadership.

So, it's clear now
that we had bishops

who were complicit,
who covered up.

1976,

and the Catholic schoolchildren
of Maitland

are lining the streets
to welcome the two men

we now know were most responsible

for covering up the sexual abuse
of their fellow students.

In the front seat is the new bishop,
Leo Clarke.

With his Irish born-deputy,
Monsignor Paddy Cotter.

As acting bishop the previous year,

Cotter had sent Ryan away
to Melbourne

to conceal the priest's
sexual assault of six altar boys

in the sacristy of his own church.

MAN: Vincent Ryan was a paedophile

who needed to be reported
to the police by Monsignor Cotter.

The church was desperate
to protect its good name

and the good name of the priesthood

and to prevent the scandal
to the faithful.

So that they had to protect
the priests in some way.

And silence...

..was what they used,

the Catholic Church
always uses silence to control,

silence and suppression of dissent
was their stock in trade.

To the extent that they were aware
of, you know, detail

and were not sufficiently disgusted
to act far more strongly,

then, yeah, I think there's
very serious culpability there.

You've got to say people who
covered up stuff

that was so revolting

would bear responsibility for that.

Clarke and Cotter died
before the Royal Commission,

taking their secrets with them.

Father Maurice Cahill is one
of the few surviving priests

who knows some of those secrets.

He lived with Cotter for many years.

I think I'm the only one probably
he ever told some things to

because we got close
to each other

living together like that
and sharing the work.

He said, "I'm the one
who persuaded Bishop Clarke

"to give Vince another try."

Bishop Clarke
brought Ryan back to Maitland

and made him a parish priest
with easy access to children.

When Ryan was arrested years later,

Clarke vehemently denied any
knowledge of Ryan's offending.

Did Patty Cotter tell Clarke
about the abuse?

I'm sure he did. Yes.

So, when Leo Clarke says he knew
nothing, that can't be true.

It can't be true. No.

I remember Bishop Clarke at
the dinner table one day, he said,

"You know, we used to think that
if a priest did something wrong,

"we'd pack him
off to a monastery

"to do a retreat
and make a good confession,

"and then he would be all set
for another start."

He said, "Now I know we were wrong."

Uh... But that's as far as it went.

There was no mention at all
of the victim.

Ryan also took advantage

of the protection
of the seal of confession.

Occasionally, I went to confession,
mostly at retreat time every year

'cause, you know, having a week
of retreat up at the monastery

and praying and everything,
you'd sort of feel,

"Oh, I can do it, I can do it,
I can..."

Did you confess your actual sins?

Yes.
You told the priest?

Yeah.
How much did you tell him?

I would have told them...

I don't know the exact words
that I would have...

They would have been aware that
I had offended against children

because I can remember one priest
saying,

"You'll go to jail
if you don't stop this," you know?

And was there any follow-up
of any kind

to what you'd said after confession?

No, no. How could he follow up?

How could he follow up
the seal of confession?

What can he do? What can he do?

What sort of penance were you given,
having confessed to...

Oh, probably three Hail Mary's

or a decade of the rosary
at the most, I imagine.

Yeah.

Why shouldn't priests who confess
to abusing children

be reported to police?

Well, we're talking to God.
I think that's our perception.

Well, they're not.
They're talking to another man.

Yeah, they are doing that. But...

..they're...

Let me say, I've never, ever had
an instance of this

in, you know, 40-odd years.

The protection of children
is incredibly important.

So is respecting the dialogue,
if you like,

between a person and their god.

And when those two things
come into conflict,

you choose confession
over the children.

I think we will do that, yes.

After his return from Melbourne,
Ryan took up residence

in the presbytery
at Hamilton Cathedral...

..living with his protector,
Monsignor Paddy Cotter.

After I'd been to Melbourne
and was with him again at Hamilton,

why didn't he watch me like a hawk?

Next door
to a Catholic primary school,

the presbytery
would become a safe house

for Ryan's ongoing sexual abuse.

One night, I had kids here,

you know, in my apartment
watching videos or something,

and one of them stayed back
this night

and he was a victim of mine.

And so, after the others had gone,

I was walking down the stairs
with that boy

and Cotter came along
from locking the front door.

Why didn't that ring bells?

He saw you with a young boy...
Yeah.

..and said nothing?
Said nothing.

Three of Ryan's victims
from this time

provided police with simple drawings

of the layout of Ryan's bedroom
next door to Cotter's.

Wouldn't make a difference,
because I could take my clothes off

and they could
take their clothes off,

which never happened before, and we
could lie on the bed and watch porn.

What about people...

If you're bringing boys to the room,

sometimes more than one,
you've got porn in the room,

were you not afraid
of someone coming in?

Not really.
You were pretty private, you know?

And who's going to invade the place?

And what about the housekeepers?

Did they see you sometimes
with children?

Oh, yeah. They would have seen...

They would have seen me
come in there with...

Oh, with kids coming,
looking for me.

In the 1970s, Audrey Nash
worked as a housekeeper

one day a week at the presbytery

for Paddy Cotter and Vince Ryan.

I was good friends with her,
I was at her home all the time,

she used to take me to basketball
on Saturday nights after mass.

Well, I'd used to see the boys
going in,

that was holidays,

but there was always four
or five of them.

You know, they'd just run
upstairs...

But...no, I never connected,

you know, that there was anything
going on.

For more than four decades,
Audrey Nash has lived with a burden

that would have crushed
most people.

Are you ready?

Got your bag?

In 1974, Audrey Nash's
13-year-old son, Andrew,

killed himself after being abused
by one of his teachers,

Brother Romuald Cable.

He was a beautiful boy.
Very talented.

He was in the debating team,
the choir,

he swam, played the violin.

Yeah. And... 'Cause he was good at
school, he was in the top class.

Yeah.

And was he enjoying life?

Oh, yes.

And...

Except, you know, like...

Looking back, it must have been
so bad at school

that he couldn't bear to go back
the next day.

So he'd rather kill himself.
That's how evil they are.

Audrey Nash is 93 years old.

Today, she's on her way
to the dedication of a memorial

for the many victims of child sex
abuse at Andrew's school.

The memorial for these unnamed
victims is in a secluded corner

of what was once
the Marist Brothers High School

in the Newcastle suburb
of Hamilton.

MAN: The cost of letting the Marist
Brothers do business in Australia

has been too high.

Wherever paedophile
Marist Brothers taught,

there are dead children.

The youngest suicide, and one
of the first here at Hamilton,

was my little brother Andrew.

He was in Year Eight...

Just like his mother,
Audrey's surviving son Jeffrey

carries his pain and anger every day.

Among the other victims
and their families here today

are Gerard McDonald
and Scott Hallet.

Here, too, is Detective Kristi Faber,

who's led the police task force
into child sex offences

in the region for 12 years.

How much suicide
have you encountered?

Astronomical, astronomical.

And suicide, drug-related deaths,
alcohol-related deaths...

Every single offender
has suicides attached.

What chance did my son have?

Under Brother Christopher's
leadership in the early '70s,

they were seven paedophiles
teaching at this school.

The Royal Commission found
that Brother Romuald

was sexually assaulting children
as early as 1957.

This wretched excuse
for a human being

was sexually assaulting children
four years before

my Andrew was born.

How many poor children were
driven to suicide by this monster?

How many lives did he destroy?

Andrew Nash was only one
of countless child victims,

but the pain that led him
to take his own life

and the story of what happened
after that,

takes us deep into the dark heart
of the Newcastle Diocese.

It begins in Audrey Nash's
modest home

on a quiet October evening in 1974.

Andrew came home, we had dinner,
he'd got his bath.

He said, "I'm going in
to do my homework."

I said, "OK, love."

And...not long after,

it wasn't very long after,

Bernadette came and said,
"Andrew won't let me in his room."

So I went to the door and
pushed it.

It didn't open, so I had to give it
a good push.

Bernadette went in. I followed.

And our screams brought Carmel, 11,
and Jeffrey was 17, rushing in.

Andrew was hanging on the door.

JEFFREY: Audrey and Bernadette and
Carmel were in there just screaming.

We just... You know,
Audrey tried to hold him up.

I had to go and... Couldn't get the
dressing-gown cord off his neck,

had to go and get a knife,
come back, cut it.

And Audrey was making that
wailing sound that, you know...

Once you hear it, you just never
forget that noise,

that sound, you know,
it's just wailing...

Audrey ran up the street to get
a...wave a cab down, ring for help.

The ambulance came very quickly,
and, um...

Father Burston arrived.

He anointed him in his room.

And the, uh...

The ambulance came
and said they were sorry,

there was nothing they could do.

I got a phone call at teatime,
a bit after,

to come 'round and anoint him.

I walked in to a boy
laying on the floor,

covered with a...I think...
I don't know whether

the ambulance had got there or not,

but, you know, he was covered
with a blanket.

Yeah, and a devastated mother
and brother and...

I'm not sure the other...
who were there at the time.

And then the ambulance left and...

..then three Marist Brothers
turned up at the door.

Brother Christopher Wade,
he was the principal.

And...

And Brother Romuald Cable
who was his class teacher.

And Brother Joe O'Brien,
who was his rugby coach.

They just came in and sat
and had a couple of words,

and then Brother Romuald said,
"Did Andrew leave a note?"

And I said, "No."

"And did he say anything to you
before he went to his room?"

I said, "No."

I was kneeling on the ground
beside her.

But they...you know, they were all
just standing around.

Like, I mean, everyone heard it.

I said, "Did anything happen
at school? Was he in any trouble?"

"No, no, no."

So...

Then they had a little huddle
in the middle of the room.

And then they left.

That was that. Never to be
seen or heard of again.

Did you think
it was a strange question to ask,

"Did he leave a note"?

Yes. Very odd.

I didn't know what
that was all about, no.

In her moment of intense grief,

Audrey had no idea
that the Marist brother

asking the questions
in her home

could have been the cause
of Andrew's anguish.

Police now believe that Brother
Romuald had sexually abused him.

Romuald Cable has since
been convicted twice of sex crimes

against 24 children,

and been sentenced to 22 years
in prison.

DET. FABER: He thought it was
his God-given right to offend.

That sort of offender.

Is it the police's view
that Andrew Nash committed suicide?

Yes.
No question about that?

No question.

And because of offending?
Yes, we believe that.

Father Bill Burston, a former
vicar general of Newcastle

who gave Andrew his last rites,

rejects the account of Romuald's
abuse causing Andrew's suicide.

I think he was a prank gone wrong.
I honestly do.

And I'm not blaming him for that.
I'm not...

You know, I'm not... But that...
Yeah, yeah.

So, you've said at other times

that you accept
that it was a suicide.

You're not convinced?
I'm not...

That's...that's my own
personal thing.

I'm not convinced.
But, you know, whatever... Yeah.

A prank gone wrong?
Prank gone wrong, yeah.

Bill Burston administered
the last rites to your son.

He still says
Andrew didn't commit suicide.

Really?

A couple of weeks ago.

I'm not sure, but I don't believe
he was assaulted by Romuald,

certainly sexually assaulted.

He may have been groomed.

And what makes you so sure
that...that it hadn't happened yet?

Because...again, because he showed
no signs of sexual assault.

To whom?
To his mother.

He said, "I want to wear
those clothes..." You know...

Look, I've had enough of
Andrew Nash, really.

Absolutely, you know?

I went around and anointed him
and I'm the bad guy.

Why? I don't know.

After Andrew died,

how well did the church
look after you?

They never did. I saw nobody.

JEFFREY: You know, Audrey
was just a devout Catholic.

You know, she just loved the church
and loved all the priests

and, you know...

Of course, Audrey was really good
friends with Vince Ryan,

and so she had to realise
that these people

don't have two heads and a tail.

Yes, it's taken me a while,
you know, just to...

They're all just criminals,
as I say.

They belong to
this criminal organisation.

And they are all liars, cowards,

they're wretched human beings...

..really, to prey on children,
like they do.

On the 22nd of May, 2019,
Audrey Nash sat in the public gallery

to witness the sentencing of her
former friend, Father Vincent Ryan.

She sat with two of Ryan's victims,
Gerard McDonald and Scott Hallet.

I just thought I'd go down and see,
you know, if he'd changed or...

But he hadn't.

And, like, no-one ever in court -

brother or priest - has said sorry
or shown any remorse.

And they still don't.

Ryan had been found guilty
of new charges

against two former altar boys.

He'd previously served
14 years in jail.

Today, he'd find out
if he was going back to prison.

Vincent Gerard Ryan
is to be sentenced

for committing four offences

involving indecent assaults
on two children.

The offences constitute
serious criminal conduct

committed against children

who are entitled to expect
a childhood free of sexual violation

and the distress
such violation causes.

The offender is sentenced
to an aggregate period

of imprisonment of three years,
three months.

I fix a non-parole period
of 14 months,

commencing 22 May, 2019.

It's a big thing for you to say
that the church that you grew up in

is a criminal organisation.

Yeah, yeah. But it is.

That's the only way
you can explain it.

It had to be organised for them
to get away with it for so long.

Sydney's Downing Centre Criminal
Courts have been kept busy

with trials of child sex abusers
from the Maitland Newcastle Diocese.

As Vincent Ryan's trial came
to an end on the ground floor,

six floors up

the trial of a brother
from the order of St John of God

was about to get underway.

Our cameras and recording equipment
are going into place.

We're restricted by law
in what we can show in these cases.

We can't identify the jury or film
the victims giving evidence.

Their identities
are carefully protected.

Bernard McGrath
has come straight from prison

where he's already serving
a 33-year sentence.

Bernard McGrath would be amongst
the worst serial sexual predators

Australia has ever seen.

He's left a trail of devastation
across two countries now -

Australia and New Zealand.

(KNOCKING)

Silence. All stand.

When you look at the victims,
the thing that strikes me the most

is not just the sheer quantity
of them.

It's the brutality
that went with it.

(LAUGHS)

WOMAN: Let's get the jury in.
Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

He in total has been found guilty
of abusing 47 boys to date.

And do you believe there are more?

Yes.

Bernard McGrath's rap sheet
is so extensive

that before his current trial,
he'd already been sentenced

to a cumulative 39 and a half years
in jail.

There were two trials in New Zealand
and Australia in the 1990s.

MAN: You were there
to be their protector.

But the dreadful thing is that,
in fact, you were their abuser.

His third trial was back
in New Zealand in 2006.

The total sentence
is five years imprisonment.

Then in 2018,
for crimes at Kendall Grange,

McGrath was sentenced
to a further 33 years jail.

WOMAN: The undeniable fact remains
that this offender knowingly engaged

in a deliberate course of prolonged
and serious sexual abuse.

His offences in both countries
were against boys

aged between seven and 13,

ranging in severity
from sexual molestation

to many counts of anal rape.

Yes, thank you, Mr Crown.

Thank you.

As you head north from Sydney

in the area between Gosford
and Newcastle,

there are four lakes
just inland from the coast.

The northernmost of the four lakes
and the biggest is Lake Macquarie.

Towards the southern part of that
lake is the town of Morisset.

And about five kilometres
from Morisset is Morisset Park.

Your Honour, I'm going to ask
the court officer

to bring up on the screen
a picture...

..that depicts the buildings
and the surrounds

of Kendall Grange School.

Here in 1978

the Order of St John of God
appointed Brother Bernard McGrath

to the teaching staff
of a special school for boys.

To say that some of them
were emotionally disadvantaged

or intellectually disadvantaged
or had physical disabilities

is rather understated.

MAN: A lot of us, we had nowhere
else to go but Kendall Grange.

That was our last hope.

Like, yep.

It was either you had troubles
at home or at school or both.

Growing up as a kid, I was dyslexic
and my mother found a place

that would take me because
I was a bit out of control

and I got moved
to Kendall Range.

I was hyperactive and, of course, I
went to all these Catholic schools.

They referred my parents
to their psychiatrists and that

and referred me to Kendall Grange

because they dealt with
troubled children.

Between those dates in count one,
the allegation is that the accused

committed an act of indecency
that is contrary to the standards...

There are 22 complainants
in this trial and 89 charges.

..is counts ten to 13, four more
counts of indecent assault.

And we're up to count 22, an assault
occasioning actual bodily harm.

The next complainant, count 25.

In similar terms...

..to the evidence of the previous...

Count 28

you'll see is a count of buggery.

So that's count 33.

Again, a count of indecent assault.

Count 38 is a count of buggery.

And then count 39 on the indictment.

The allegation of buggery...

Count 43, you'll see,
is an allegation

of sexual intercourse
without consent.

JUDGE: Mr Crown,
I might just stop you there.

You've been going for an hour.

I'd be grateful, Your Honour.
You might need a break.

And I think we all need a break
for morning tea. Thank you.

WOMAN: Anybody for bickies? (LAUGHS)

Thank you.

Di Grimmond was a housemother
at Kendall Grange for 12 years.

You had the cemetery on the right,

which were all the old Irish
brothers that originally came out

to start the order.

And on the left
were the big paddocks then

and you just came down
and it just opened up

in to this magnificent building.

These here are the school.
These are the ones...

That's the school.
Yeah.

And that's the chapel.
Mm-hm.

And this was all knocked down.

All knocked down, yes.

All knocked down.

Who's that? Is that... In the...

That's St John of God.

That's the...
That's the St John of God... Yes.

This order is 450 years old,
so it's a very old culture.

Brothers from St John of God
were sent to Australia in 1947

on a mission to establish
a special school for boys.

They came from Ireland.

The archbishop of Sydney wrote

to the head of the St John of God
brothers in Rome and said,

"We'd really like some brothers
out here in Australia.

"They're experts in mental health."

So they sent a brother
from Ireland to Sydney

and they moved up to Morisset
and founded the order up there.

Was there any hint of there
being paedophile activity early on?

Oh, yes.

The brother who started Australia
was joined quite quickly

in the following years by five
other brothers from Ireland.

Each of them have serious complaints
of child sexual abuse

from the very start.

I mean, the whole ethos
of St John of God

is to look after
the most vulnerable.

It dates back hundreds and hundreds
of years ago.

That's why they were set up.

And you've got a rotten core
of them who have just used it

as their own playground
to identify and select

and molest children -
the most vulnerable children.

Michelle Mulvihill, a psychologist
and former nun,

was brought in by St John of God
in the late '90s

when the order was being overwhelmed

with claims of sexual abuse
by brothers.

I found a lot of children, really,
boys who hadn't grown up,

who turned into men who had enormous
power, enormous privilege,

who are cut off from the world.

I don't believe they were
following Jesus.

They were following this person
called John of God.

It was kind of like a cult.

They had their own ways of talking,

ways of being their own
kind of prayer system.

How would you characterise
the prevalence of child molesters,

paedophiles in St John of God?

These people were everywhere.

There wasn't one place
that they...the brothers existed

where there wasn't evidence
of child sexual abuse, molestation

and just bastardry going on.

WOMAN: When I think
of that beautiful place,

that lovely, lovely place where...

Alright, there's that...

I keep referring to it as
the dark side of Kendall Grange,

I knew nothing about and no-one
I know knew anything about it.

Do you understand how a fellow
Catholic, Christian and a brother

could do the things they did?

I can't believe it.

I cannot believe it.

Not...not...

That was Brother Bernard
and our music teacher

from Kendall Grange.

That was one of our staff nights
that I organised

to keep the staff sane.

So what was he like?

What kind of a person was he?

He was...
He was the life of the party.

As you can see there.
People thought that he was fun.

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

Well, you thought he was fun.

Definitely. Definitely.
And the kids?

And the kids.

My word. My word.

MAN: We used to think he was God.

I don't know what it was with us,
but most of us loved him to death,

even though he was doing
these horrific things to us.

MAN: I think he was cunning
in what his overall plan was.

Very manipulative and looked
like a nice person doing it.

That's why none of the housemothers
saw...

..that really knew.

In 1982, 11-year-old Jason Van Dyke
had just arrived at Kendall Grange,

where Brother Bernard was headmaster
and in charge of one of the dorms.

He's, you know, coming into your bed
and laying on you, basically.

There were hands going down
your pants

and him rubbing himself on you
and tongue going in your mouth.

You didn't know what was going on.

As a kid, you don't ask questions.

You don't know how.

We'd get cigarettes
and get to drive the van.

That's when he started
putting his hand on my leg

while I was driving

and it progressively got worse

to masturbation...

..of him masturbating me,
me masturbating him.

Then to the worst was
when I was in the bedroom

and he put his penis between my legs

and proceeded to ejaculate.

Hey? You're a good boy, aren't you?
Hey?

Paul was just nine years old
when McGrath targeted him.

One of the youngest victims.

There was a canteen.

Sometimes he'd take me in there
and sit me on the counter

while he was getting a sweet for me.

He would play games with me
like the drawing game

and things like that.

He would draw on me back and I'd
have to guess what he's drawing.

Eventually,
he would unzip his shirt.

And then I'd be playing in his
chest hairs and drawing things

and then he'd take my shirt off
and it would go like that.

And then he'd eventually
work his way down to fondling

and touching you and getting...

..taking your hand
and putting it on his penis.

And it was like that
for the first few times

without any sort of masturbation
or anything.

At night, Paul was in an especially
vulnerable position.

This was the two dormitories
upstairs and down

and it was on the lake side
where the bars was.

And where did you sleep
in that picture?

I was right at the end.

That was Brother Bernard's room.

My bed was across from his doorway.
Yeah.

And that was the last room
at the end of the hall.

Sometimes he would be gentle

and other times he would just
pin you down face first

and all I can, like, picture
is the pillow.

I'd be nearly suffocating
and he'd push me head in the pillow

and lay on top of me and I'd be,
like, begging him to stop it.

I'd say, "You're hurting me.
I can't breathe, Brother Bernard,"

and he'd be pushing me down.

I'd be laying on the bed
and I'd be just clenched

and the only muscle I could move
was me bum cheeks.

I clenched them as tight as I could
trying to force him out of me.

And this nerve pain would shoot up
through my belly

when he penetrated me,

like, I'd feel like
I was going to burst inside.

Like, I felt like I was splitting.

And then when it was finished,
he'd be all nice to me.

Take me into the bathroom
and wash me down with a flannel

and wipe me clean,
and then he'd put me into bed.

The tragedy for these and all
the young victims at Kendall Grange

was that McGrath should never
have been sent there.

The order had received reports
that he'd molested children

at the boarding school where
he taught in New Zealand

before coming to Australia.

In the trial, the jury
will be presented evidence

of McGrath's crimes at the school
in Christchurch.

Marylands was an institution
remarkably similar to Kendall Grange.

(BELL JANGLES)

MAN: The main thing would be
the isolation.

Most of these victims have come from
either one parent families,

some of them have no family support.

They had some learning and some
of them had physical disabilities

as well.

MAN: The New Zealand police started
investigating allegations

of sexual offending by the brothers
at the Marylands School.

In May of 2003,

the accused was interviewed
by the New Zealand police

about the allegations
that were made there.

Bernard McGrath was silent
during the trial.

He never took the stand.

The jury would get only one chance
for a direct glimpse into his mind.

JUDGE O'ROURKE: We're about to play
the interview of May 2003.

I have excused the accused,
Mr McGrath, from watching the video.

He's not feeling very well,

but was quite content for us
to continue with the trial.

So we'll play that now. Thank you.

Right, the machine's going now,
Bernard.

So we're here at Christchurch
Central Police Station.

The day is 22 May 2003.
The time is 13:24.

I'm Detective Sean Buckley.

Beside me is Detective John Borlace.

So there's a fair bit for us
to go through. Obviously today...

In my mind,

a paedophile's had their entire
offending period of their life

to set up and wait for this day,

the day they're going to be
interviewed,

so they've got a backstory ready.

It was hell. We actually just
didn't know what we were doing.

You know?

We were controlled by fear.

We were absolutely
just controlled by fear.

You know, it certainly described to
me that when he lost his temper,

he would lose it in a large way.

So he could go from zero to 100
very, very quickly.

Were they crying?
Were they upset?

Oh, I can't remember anybody crying,
no.

Hysterical?

No, I can't remember anybody
hysterical.

Frightened?

They would be frightened,
I can grant you that. Yeah.

Well, they must have been.

And he's also very manipulative.

He had a small group of older boys
who had all been his victims.

And he was able to manipulate them
into going out

and getting younger boys.

If anything that you can recall
that took place,

can you list off the different
places around the school

where that happened?

Would be my bedroom
and the classroom.

And the classroom?

Oh, dear.

I was sicko, wasn't I?

It was all sick.

He's claimed on many occasions that
he never anally penetrated anyone.

Yeah, so he's smart enough to know
that if he ever admitted

to any penetrative acts -
sodomy or oral sex -

that his sentencing
would go up considerably.

Some of the boys have said that
there was anal sex taking place.

No, there was no anal sex.

There wasn't. There wasn't.

And I will say this in court.

Or are you just minimalising?

I'm not minimalising it.
No, I'm not.

I am not minimising it.

I'm not. Not.

As soon as admissions
of penetrative acts comes in,

it's a whole new ball game for him.

But all I can say is
that is not one of my sins.

With God Almighty as my judge.

And I am prepared to go
to my grave tonight and face that.

Really prepared for that.
Fucking hell I am now.

When you throw that at me.

He had a number of excuses as to why
that could never have occurred.

And did it occur?

Definitely, yeah.

We had a number of victims

who talked about being sodomised
by Bernard.

You know, these are young boys
and they clearly remember the pain

that was incurred and the physical
and the mental trauma

that went with that.

Bernard McGrath wasn't the only
brother who sexually abused boys

at institutions
run by St John of God.

We wish it never had happened.
It has happened, but life goes on.

You are seeing the human face
of religious life.

A man in a suit,
just like everybody else,

has his strengths and weaknesses.

And sometimes
there has been a weakness.

The royal commission found
this small order

had the highest proportion
of alleged child sex offenders

of any Catholic institution.

With great sadness, we have to
acknowledge that some brothers

stretching back to the 1950s
have done dreadful things.

Of the 112 brothers,
40% were alleged offenders.

Tell me about the sexual culture.

How did it breed?
How did it come into being?

By the older brothers.

So if you look at the likes
of William Lebler,

he's had free rein
for a good number of years.

So he's set the tone,
both with his physical brutality,

but also with his sexual offending.

Out of the group that went on
to become offenders,

I think the majority of them
have learnt...

..to do it and have been provided
with the opportunity to do it.

Put your arms out. Yep.
(BEEP!)

Turn around.

After a long negotiation,

we are granted entry to the maximum
security prison in New South Wales

where Bernard McGrath is locked away
from the world.

We've come looking for answers
as to how McGrath was able

to get away with so many crimes
against children

for so long and in so many places.

Hello.

Hello.

Gosh, this is really big time,
isn't it? (CHUCKLES)

Dan's just gonna put a mic on.

The conditions set
by prison authorities

on the advice of their psychologists

is that we avoid talking
about individual crimes

in order to protect his victims.

You're going to spend
the rest of your life in prison.

Do you understand why it is

that society wants
to lock you away forever?

Um, I think I do understand.

Yes.

I acknowledge that my feeling
is vulnerable

and it is against society's values

and thoughts and...and morals.

You said that the vow of chastity...
Yeah.

..the not looking on women

is one of the reasons
why you had sex with children.

I want you to explain that.

My understanding at the time was,
um...

..ah...very limited, um,

about the vow of chastity.

It was just no sex.

And so in some distorted thinking,

if I-I turned to somebody
who it was safer.

And that meant a child?

That meant a young person, yep.

I want to understand how it is

that the children came to bear
the brunt of your sexual desires.

Um, I was...

That was the environment
that I was working within.

It was an institution for
troubled teenagers and young people.

So it was an opportunity.

They were there.
It was an opportunity, yeah.

How did you get away with it?

Like anybody who offends.

Um, you don't tell people,
for a start.

It becomes that secret inside you
which becomes a cancer.

Um...

How do I get away with it? Um...

Well, I didn't get away with it,
really.

You did for a long time.
For a long time.

Mm.

Um...

Because I suppose no-one
said anything.

There were a large number
of paedophiles

operating in the order, though.

According to Broken Rites website,
yes.

Were those paedophiles protecting
each other from discovery,

do you think?

Is it just simply that paedophiles
protect paedophiles?

I don't think they were

because I don't think,
if anybody was operating as...

And had offended,

I don't think you went round
telling other people.

It's the thing that I think
stretches credulity

that you could have a number of men
who are abusing vulnerable children,

that you did not talk to each other
about what you were doing.

No, we didn't. No.
Never?

Not a word. Not a word.

You didn't talk about the children
and who would make a good victim?

No, not at all.

I never heard conversations
like that

at Marylands or Kendall Grange
or even at Burwood. Yep.

I can see that, um,

well, I suppose the place
will eventually close down.

At the Marylands school
in Christchurch,

McGrath's boss and the headmaster
was Brother Rodger Moloney.

Moloney had supervised his training
in the order.

DET. BUCKLEY: They've sort of been
brothers in arms in some ways.

They're both well aware
of what each other's doing,

and they've just gone on
and offended at will in Marylands.

Including sharing boys. Victims.
Yeah, including that.

What was Moloney doing to children
at Marylands?

I don't know what he was doing
but I only witnessed one incident.

He abused a child in front of you?

Well, he ran his hands
down the person's front, yeah.

Their groin?
Groin, yeah.

He was abusing that child?
At that moment, yep.

Why would he do that
in front of you?

I think most probably

he may have been saying,
"Wow, look, let's do it...

"..ourselves."

He and I, you know?
Was he inviting you to...

..take part?
I would say, um...

I would say most probably it was
like an invitation from him, yeah.

Moloney also told you
that he'd masturbated to a boy at...

Oh, sorry, yes, yes, that's right.
I'd forgotten about that.

In 1977, complaints of abuse
at the school

reached the headquarters
of St John of God in Sydney.

A meeting was subsequently called
of the Brothers at Marylands.

Brother Moloney did say

that the provincial office,
the authorities,

the senior members of the order
had received

something saying
that something was going on.

The sexual abuse of children,
that was the 'something'?

Did you say those words?
I can't remember...

But the meaning was clear.
But that's what...

The meaning was clear to me. Yes.

Why wouldn't the leadership
go to police?

Um...

I don't think it was done back
in those days anyway.

And I don't think it was thought of
as it's thought of today.

I don't even think in the DSM,
which I had to study...

Which is the authority
on mental disorders,

even back in 1980
had even any mention

of paedophilia or hebephilia.

It wasn't until...
Yes, but there is...

Let's...let's put aside this claim
that the church makes all the time

because it is patently ridiculous.

It is well known...
Yeah, I understand all that...

..throughout the history
of the church

that having sex with children
is wrong.

The church knew it was a crime
to have sex with children.

I agree. I agree wholeheartedly.
It has nothing to do with the labels

paedophile or any of the others.

The church knew it was a crime so why
didn't they do something about it?

I don't know.

I got moved, I think,
shortly after that.

Mm-hm.

I got my letter of obedience
to report to the Prior...

..at Kendall Grange.

The order knew exactly
what was going on.

There's no ifs or buts there.

But instead of dealing with it,
they shifted the problem on.

So instead of there being five
or six victims, just at Marylands,

it escalates and now we're looking
at hundreds of victims.

The New Zealand police investigation

led to the order's head
at the time of the abuse -

Brother Brian O'Donnell.

O'Donnell made the decision
to move McGrath to Kendall Grange.

Sean Buckley went looking
for evidence in the order's archive.

There was no documentation to say
why McGrath had been moved

from Marylands to...
back to Australia.

It was just said that it was
just time for him to go.

But detail of everything else,
nothing about a major movement.

Exactly, yep.

Do you believe that the order
of St John of God

destroyed evidence
of those movements?

Yes.

There's information that should be
in the archives, which are not...

..which is not there.

So can only assume
that it's been destroyed

or taken out of the archives.

What discussion was there
about why you were being moved?

There was no discussion.

All moves are done by the provincial
at the time in Sydney...

..um, you never question those
as an individual brother.

That's as...
Yeah, I got the message that...

Your obedience to move and I moved.

Why did you think
you were being moved?

My hunch was because I had offended.

Um...

Yeah, that was my hunch at the time.

Fellow abuser Brother Moloney,
a trained pharmacist, was also moved.

O'Donnell rewarded Moloney
with a plum post in the Vatican,

appointed as a pharmacist
to the Pope.

Moloney, at the same time,
was moved to the Vatican.

Did you understand he was also moved
because he was assaulting children?

He was moved after I was moved.
Um...

..that was my hunch.
So when you look at that now,

you have two men
sexually assaulting children,

both covered up by the head
of the religious order...

When you look at it that way, yes.
Yeah.

You understand the significance
of understanding...

I do, I do understand.
..the institutional crime

beyond your individual crimes.
Of course, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Very much so.
Oh, very much so.

But I didn't at the time, though...

Is it possible that you still
feel an instinct

that you need to protect the order?

No, I have got no instinct
to protect the order. No.

The order's cover-up continued
into the early 1990s

when the new boss of
St John of God, Joseph Smith,

found himself having to deal
with a growing number of complaints

against McGrath.

The only conversation
I can remember with him

is when he was...
Drove me into St Mary's.

I haven't really thought of this
in quite some time.

He drove me into St Mary's
to speak with...some priests there.

Brian Lucas.
Yeah. That's... Yeah.

Him, yeah. Forgotten his name.

In the 1990s, Father Brian Lucas

was based at the presbytery
at St Mary's Cathedral.

A lawyer as well as
a Catholic priest,

Lucas was one of
the most important figures

in the church's response
to child sexual abuse,

leading the formation

of the so-called
Special Issues Resource Group.

Brian Lucas has spent years
fending off allegations

that he was involved in a cover-up.

He told the royal commission

that his job was to help bishops
or major superiors

handle the person making a complaint

and get the offender
out of the business.

In this capacity, he met
more than 30 priests and brothers,

including some of Australia's
worst offenders.

In none of these cases
did he report them to the police.

I may well have met with him,
I don't deny that I met with him,

but I don't have a recollection
of that meeting.

I asked you to check. Did you check?

I found that I had a meeting,
certainly,

with St John of God Brothers,

but I haven't made any other
inquiries other than

I can see that I may have met
with Bernard McGrath.

Do you remember meeting or talking
to Joseph Smith?

I suspect that Joseph Smith,
who was a superior,

probably brought Bernard McGrath
along.

What assurances did you give them

about the level of protection
that you were offering?

Nothing further than that this
was an off-the-record conversation

I would maintain was confidential.

Is that effectively the same level
of secrecy as confession

that you're offering?
No.

But is that why a number of people
who came to see you

talk about it in those terms,

that you put it in terms
of confessional secrecy?

No.

He asked me about did I want to go
to confession, I remember that.

Um...

'Cause it's a year since I'd been
to that sacrament.

I would never have said that

and I would deny
that I would have said that

because it would be totally
inappropriate, ever.

It's fundamental church law

that you never, ever hear
the confession

of someone you're dealing with
in a disciplinary fashion

so if he said I said that,
I absolutely deny it.

What did you tell Lucas
about what you had done?

I told him I had offended.

You told Brian Lucas of
the full extent of your offending.

I did.

Well, not... I did... I...

Yes.

I said to him... I remember him
asking a question.

What question?
Um, a complaint had come in.

Mm-hm.

I can remember him saying
there would be others

and I can remember saying yes.

Did he recommend
that you should go to the police?

I can't remember that being...

You'd think you'd remember
the first mention of the police.

I'm just trying to go back to think
if he had.

You must have been afraid of arrest.

By this stage, there's a series of
complaints that have been made

in two countries about you
sexually assaulting children.

I...
You would face a prison term

if the police got involved.
Yeah, yeah.

So did you report what McGrath
was saying to the police?

No.
Why not?

Because I didn't have any basis
to do that.

Because the context
of that conversation

had to respect his right to silence.
That's a cover-up.

Well, you might call
it a cover-up...

I think ANYBODY in the community
would call that a cover-up.

No, I don't accept that.

What do you mean by
'right to silence'?

He's telling you
that he has assaulted children.

Criminals have a right
not to self-incriminate.

In the criminal justice system.
That's correct.

Not in an office behind St Mary's
Cathedral talking to a priest.

No, not when that conversation
is premised on the basis

that he has a right to silence and
this conversation is confidential.

So his right to confidentiality
is more important than justice?

No. The justice...
No, you've made a decision.

You have a choice,

you can either hand Bernard McGrath
over to the police

or you can protect his right
to confidentiality.

You choose to protect
Bernard McGrath.

Or what you can do is to entice him
out of ministry

with a view that in due course,

the criminal justice system
will kick in.

You hope. But you play no role
in making that happen.

That's true.

So what were they doing?

In that sense, how you're saying
it's now like a cover-up.

Is that what you think it was?

Thinking back now, yes.
I'd have to say yes.

I just wanted to show you
these pictures, actually.

Sometimes this can become very...
removed.

See these?

These are the little boys
who Bernard McGrath raped.

Vulnerable children, all of them,
at a special school in New Zealand.

There's many, many more.

Why would you protect someone...?
I wasn't protecting him.

If you weren't protecting him,

you would have handed him
over to the police.

Well, his order could have handed
him over the police,

he could have given himself
over to the police,

his victims could have gone
to the police.

You think that these children...

..bore the responsibility to end
Bernard McGrath's offending, not you?

No. What I'm saying is this,

that...

..the limited role I had was
to entice them out of ministry.

Why so limited a role?

Who puts the limits on your role?

That's what his superiors
would have wanted me to do.

And what about those children,
those pictures I've just showed you?

What about justice for them?
Where does that fit in?

That's an important value.

Except it appears to play no role
whatsoever in what you did.

Well, I'm sorry that
that's the way you interpret it,

but that was certainly not
the intention.

According to McGrath,

Lucas raised the prospect
of psychological treatment

to address his crimes.

I think he was the one
that brought up about treatment.

It was his idea to send you
to America.

Well, I don't know about
going to America

but I think he mentioned treatment.

Did you believe that paedophilia
could be cured?

That the offending of your priests
and brothers could be cured?

No, I don't know that
it could be cured

but you could put them
in a situation

where you've taken them out
of ministry

and you removed much of
the opportunity for offending.

Why send them for treatment then,
if they can't be cured?

Well, it depends on the nature
of what their offending was.

Some may not be cured but some may
learn how to manage their behaviour.

Give me an example.
I can't give particular examples

because...
It's meaningless without an example.

We're talking about
known prolific paedophiles.

Which of those benefited
from treatment?

Well, I can't say that because I was
not involved in their treatment.

Bernard McGrath was sent
to the desert wilderness

of the Jemez Valley in New Mexico,

out of the reach of police
in Australia and New Zealand,

to a notorious Catholic-run
treatment facility.

The Jemez Springs operation was run

by an order called
The Servants of the Paraclete.

McGrath was one of a number
of serial paedophiles from Australia,

including the notorious Victorian
offender Gerald Ridsdale,

sent for treatment to this place,

which defined itself as a repair shop
for damaged priests and brothers.

MAN: It's like every automobile
industry has a repair department.

Well, sometimes...
a priest needs repairs.

Some of them are pretty well
dented... (CHUCKLES) ..and bruised

and beaten and scarred and scuffed.

"Come on in, we'll give you...
We'll fix you up."

What happened is that
he went to Jemez Springs.

Well, that's a matter for his order.

How is it the best thing

to have someone removed
from the country and sent overseas

when they've just admitted
to committing a terrible crime?

Well, it's a matter for victims
to come forward

and report those crimes.

So you think that you have no
responsibility before the law

to report a crime?

That depends on the context
of the information

and how you come to the information.

And if you come to the information
in the context

of a confidential conversation,

that has to be respected.

It doesn't.
The law doesn't agree with you.

The law says you have a
responsibility to report a crime.

Not...unless you have reasonable
excuse not to.

You think that's a reasonable excuse?
Yes.

A man who is raping children.

In the context of his right
to silence,

that's the dilemma
we have to deal with.

McGrath wasn't removed
from the order for many years.

Shortly after he was spirited
out of the country,

the mother of one of his victims

confronted the head of St John of God
at its headquarters in Sydney.

That was a difficult day.

I went in to the main office...

..and Joseph Smith came out

and he said, "Come into my room."

Jason Van Dyke's mother, Janice,
wanted answers.

Her son had finally broken down
and admitted what had happened to him

at Kendall Grange.

I started taking drugs and drinking
and...

..and trying to self-medicate, and
then basically when I turned 18...

..I was killing myself and I kept,
you know...

..I was going downhill.

And I told her.

We're in the car and I said,
this is what happened.

Joseph Smith's response to
Janice's complaint was remarkable.

I said to him, "Jason's been abused
by Bernard McGrath."

And he then said, "Oh, well, I know,

"because another boy has come
forward six months earlier."

And I was, like, taken aback.

And then he described to me
how he went, took McGrath,

took him to America.

He was going to get treatment,
he'd be well looked after.

I said, "But what about Jason?"

And he said, "Oh, yes, go
and get treatment for Jason.

"He will need to see a counsellor."

As Bernard was getting treatment.

It was all like, "Go and get him -
Jason - treatment

"and, um, send me the bills."

How much did Smith ask you
about Jason and how he was?

Didn't ask me anything.

Didn't want to know.

He was more worried about
Bernard McGrath, I've gotta say.

At the end of his treatment
in America,

Joseph Smith called McGrath
to offer him a choice.

MCGRATH: Joseph Smith wanted
to speak to me and said

the police from Christchurch were
wanting to interview me in Sydney

and that they weren't going to go
for extradition

if I chose not to come back.

So Smith was giving you
the opportunity not to face justice

but to remain at large
in the United States.

Well, as you say it that way,
yes, that's true.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

McGrath himself chose to return
to Australia.

He would never be free
of the law again.

After guilty verdicts on 51 offences,

McGrath was finally sentenced
in this, his fifth trial,

in November 2019.

Yes, the sentence,
of Bernard McGrath.

It must be remembered
that he committed so many offences

upon 15 victims over so many years.

He was a predator and there was
no sign he was stopping

as he moved from one victim
to the next. Given his age...

After agreeing to be filmed
throughout the trial and in prison,

McGrath refused to be filmed
as his sentence was delivered.

Is your client able to stand,
Mr Wasalinio?

Thank you, Mr McGrath.

You are convicted of the 51 offences

for which the jury
have found you guilty

and to which you have
pleaded guilty.

McGrath learnt that he will
almost certainly die in prison.

I impose an aggregate sentence
of 27 years imprisonment.

The earliest date the offender
is eligible

to apply for release to parole
is 22 December 2044.

Thank you, Your Honour.

Anything arising?
No, Your Honour.

I will adjourn.

I've always hated injustice

but what makes me so angry
about this story

is that McGrath's superiors
have never been held to account

for their complicity in his crimes.

They knew what he was capable of
but still protected him.

Former head of the order
Brian O'Donnell

moved him to Australia to
a fresh group of vulnerable children.

Another former head, Joseph Smith,
moved him out of the country,

out of the reach of police
and parents.

And the current head of the order,
Timothy Graham,

refused to be interviewed and offered
a minimal response to our questions

on behalf of McGrath's victims.

But St John of God
isn't even answerable

to the Catholic Church in Australia.

Their authority comes directly
from the Pope.

Ahead of his 2019 summit
on child sex abuse,

Pope Francis welcomed
St John of God's global leadership

into the heart of the Vatican.

Pictured among the Pope's
honoured guests was Joseph Smith.

Alongside him, the reticent
Timothy Graham

and former leader Brian O'Donnell.

The leadership of St John of God
continues to enjoy the Pope's favour.

Their lives and reputations,
apparently untouched

by the pain of hundreds of victims

and hundreds more
heartbroken families.

There's a lot of other people
out there that can't even speak,

let alone speak up.

For what happens to 'em
in them places.

I don't know how them brothers
can sleep at the night.

The surviving victims
of St John of God

are left to manage the destruction
wrought on their lives.

The damage to their childhood selves
was so profound

that few will ever recover.

It's like they rape your soul,
it's like...

I feel numb.

I feel... I don't feel hate anymore.

I'm out of the hate stage of hating
'em now because it was hurting me.

So hating's no good,
hating only just eat you away.

But...I don't love real good,

I find it hard to love people.

JASON: I went from being outgoing
to reclusive

and very hard on myself
and other people around me.

And if anyone fucks me over once,
that's it,

they're not part of my life anymore.

And it's affected
every part of my life, obviously.

Can't live like that.
Every relationship, everything.

Yep.
Can you get free of it?

I don't know.

Not until...

..the Pope says or...

..that it's never gonna happen again

and that's never gonna happen.

That's good. Thank you.

Is this all over now, is it?
Yes.

(CHUCKLES)

You're just gonna leave it
like that?

I think they're gonna take you away
soon is what's about to happen.

No, that wasn't very good,
that whole last hour.

No, not really happy with all that.

Well, if there's anything
you haven't said,

speak now or forever hold your peace.

Well... (LAUGHS)

Stuff in my head
I still would like to have said

which I haven't said, but anyway.

Apart from all that.
Well, speak now.

No, no, it's too late now.
Let's leave it. Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

(DOOR SLAMS SHUT)

Captions by Red Bee Media

Copyright
Australian Broadcasting Corporation