For 40 years many boys placed in institutions run by the order of St John of God were molested, raped and physically assaulted by some of the men who were supposed to care for them. Now a former nun who worked for the order speaks out about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks.
EDITOR'S NOTE: There is an issue with the video for this story that will be rectified on Monday 10 December, apologies for any inconvenience.
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: Among the litany of accusations that led to the recent announcement of a Royal commission into the institutional child sex abuse, none have been more shocking than those surrounding the Catholic order St John of God. For 40 years boys placed in the order's care were molested, raped and physically assaulted. The story has hit the headlines this week with the arrest in New Zealand of a former brother accused of molesting 35 children in a home for intellectually disabled boys. Tonight a former nun who worked for the order speaks out about what she says is a culture of collusion within its ranks. In a moment I'll be joined by the head of the order, Brother Timothy Graham, but first this report by Lisa Whitehead.
LISA WHITEHEAD, REPORTER: This is former Catholic Brother Bernard McGrath. He's now facing possible extradition to Australia on 252 sex abuse charges. He's accused of abusing 35 children.
The alleged offences occurred at the Kendall Grange boys' home in Morisset, south of Newcastle. It belonged to St John of God, an order of the Church that's accused of covering up decades of allegations of abuse of vulnerable children in its care.
WAYNE CHAMLEY, BROKEN RITES: It's behaviour that's endemic within the order and it's been allowed to go on for decades.
MICHELLE MULVIHILL, FORMER NUN AND PSYCHOLOGIST: My latest count is about 200 victims, each of whom would have five, six, 10 or 20 allegations. So we're up to the thousands in terms of the number of incidents that have been reported.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Yarra View, a farm and workshop in Lilydale on the outskirts of Melbourne, was home to 90 intellectually disabled boys and men. It featured in a documentary aired by the ABC.
PRESENTER (ABC documentary): Yarra View is administered by a Roman Catholic order, the Brothers of St John of God. These four men live here with their family of 90 and together with a secular staff of about 30, they manage the farm and workshop where the men work and they accept responsibility for their general welfare.
LISA WHITEHEAD: For 40 years from the 1950s, this was one of four homes and a hostel run by the order in Victoria and NSW. Most of the boys and young men placed in their care were intellectually disabled. The brothers took a vow dedicating themselves to serving the Church in the assistance of those who suffer and are in need.
BROTHER OF ST JOHN OG GOD: It is my life and I want to give it as a gift. But I care very much for all the fellows who are here. They often call you to love them in many different ways and I think that's a real confirmation that you're needed.
LISA WHITEHEAD: But dozens of the boys in institutions run by the St John of God order have alleged they were subject to horrifying sexual and physical abuse at the hands of some of the brothers.
MICHAEL MADSEN: I was abused every day. Sometimes I was bashed, sometimes I was raped. You know, being dragged along the floor at eight years old or nine years old is just not right, OK. And that's affected me, that's affected my family.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Michael Madsen is now 43. Back in 1980, when he was just a few years older than his young son is today, he was sent by his family to board at one of the homes run by the St John of God order.
MICHAEL MADSEN: They ruled on violence, horrific violence. Like, you know, you go and see horror movies and stuff today. We lived a horror movie, me and all these other kids.
LISA WHITEHEAD: In a class action settled in 2002, allegations were made against more than 20 brothers. The order admitted 24 boys and men with disabilities were sexually abused in three homes in Victoria over 30 years. It paid $3.6 million in compensation to the victims.
Were any of the alleged perpetrators charged by police?
WAYNE CHAMLEY: The confounding fact in Victoria is that despite them being given evidence by at least eight men who did not have any intellectual deficits about their experiences of widespread criminality, not a single person was ever charged and that's something we still have to get to the bottom of.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Neither the Catholic Church nor the order has ever referred a single complaint to Victoria police.
Former nun and psychologist Michelle Mulvihill was on the order's professional standards committee for seven years and head of it for three. She heard horrific accounts of alleged abuse from hundreds of men who had lived at the boys' homes.
MICHELLE MULVIHILL: Some children had complained of being tortured. We heard stories about children committing suicide. We were taken to graveyards to see their gravestones in some places. There were acts of ritual abuse, I would call it, where perpetrators would sit in a group with young boys and conduct sex with them and then sit back and watch boys conduct sex with each other.
LISA WHITEHEAD: She travelled around Australia and to New Zealand with the head of the order to speak to men who claim they'd been abused.
MICHELLE MULVIHILL: The first level of attitude was, "We need to do something to help these victims. We have been founded to help people who live on the fringe. We need to be the good guys here." But underneath that there was a soft belly of hardness, of criticism of victims, of laughing at them, of going, "Oh, that boy was a liar when he was at school so he's still lying," of turning people away and of protecting themselves and one another. And it's that kind of cover-up that I think's been going on for a very long time.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Churinga school in Melbourne's north was one of the residential homes run by the order. Steve Danas was sent there at the age of 11. He claims he witnessed horrific physical abuse of other children and was sexually abused by one of the brothers.
How often would that sexual abuse occur?
STEVE DANAS: It was - sometimes it'd be two times a week, maybe three times on some occasions, on some weeks, you know.
LISA WHITEHEAD: And how many years did this go on for?
STEVE DANAS: It was about, ah - well, it started when I was 11 and it was about five or six years.
LISA WHITEHEAD: The man he accuses of molesting him was then known as Brother Gabriel Mount. Steve Danas went to the police with his allegations in the mid-1990s, but no charges were laid.
STEVE DANAS: They just said it'd be your word against his, but, you know, if I had that time over again now, if I had the chance, yeah, I would go to court.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Instead of pursuing criminal charges against Brother Gabriel, he took his complaint to the order. In 1998 the order paid Steve Danas compensation and put $40,000 into a trust fund for his daughter for damages relating to claims of sexual abuse against Brother Gabriel. It admitted no liability. As part of the deed of settlement with the order, Steve Danas signed a confidentiality agreement.
STEVE DANAS: Hush money. That's, that's - I can't call it compensation because it's not.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Gabriel Mount left the order and is now known as Father Roger Mount. Today he's a parish priest in Papua New Guinea.
STEVE DANAS: They just move 'em around from place to place, you know. It's - like, ya know, this Gabriel Mount's in New Guinea. Ya know, what's he doing in New Guinea?
WAYNE CHAMLEY: They hide them and they move them overseas. They hide them in houses that they own and they go on as if nothing's wrong.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Father Roger Mount has never been charged with any sex offences and when confronted last week, denied Steve Danas' claims that he sexually abused him.
Michael Madsen received two confidential compensation payouts from the order of St John of God, one in 1992 and the second in 1995 after he says he threatened to go to the police and the media with his allegations of abuse by another brother. The order did not admit liability and Michael Madsen had to agree to discontinue any proceedings already commenced in the court.
MICHAEL MADSEN: It's a huge cover-up, yeah, obviously, and the Church is just paying out money when they have to or when they see something in the newspaper, ya know. Like I expect a phone call tomorrow from them asking for all the money back. Ya know, I believe that's going to happen.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Michelle Mulvihill quit the order in 2007, disgusted at the way in which it handled complaints. She wrote to the head of the order of St John of God in Rome demanding the organisation be shut down in Australia.
MICHELLE MULVIHILL: He wrote back and said, "Oh, dear, this couldn't possibly be true. There may have been some things that happened in the past, Michelle, but nothing's happening at the moment." Yet we have very recently in the newspapers discovered St John of God people in Papua New Guinea with live-in help of youth. We have also several brothers who are under police investigation at the moment. Now, that doesn't add up to me.
LISA WHITEHEAD: Michael Madsen says he's struggled to hold down a job and battled depression, alcohol and drug abuse throughout his adult life. He's now the sole carer of his five-year-old son, but has no contact with his six other children.
MICHAEL MADSEN: Now I have a five-year-old child that I have to focus on 24 hours a day and protect and I have to put him to school next year. I know he's not gonna be abused there, but I'm so scared of giving somebody else the responsibility to take care of him. And I love him to death, you know, but he needs to know - and this is why I'm doing all this now, you know. I want him to grow up seeing that his dad stood up and did this.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Lisa Whitehead reporting.
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