Christian Brother and convicted pedophile Robert Charles Best and
another member of the Catholic order hunted young boys "like a pack of
dogs" when they taught in Ballarat, according to one of their victims.
Best, who is already in jail for sexual assaults against
his students and is to be sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to
27 sexual assaults against 11 boys, taught at St Alipius primary school
in Ballarat from 1969 until 1973.
During that time he lived at St Patrick's College in the
Victorian city, a school where another convicted pedophile, Brother
Edward Dowlan, taught and lived. Dowlan was in charge of the school's
boarding house.
A former St Patrick's student said Best and Dowlan had
reputations for abuse well known to students at their schools, as did a
number of other brothers and another convicted pedophile, the St Alipius
school chaplain, Father Gerald Ridsdale.
The former student, who came forward only this week,
described an occasion he witnessed in which two of his friends were
returning home from a dance at a Ballarat girls' school.
On the way they were drinking a stubbie of beer outside St Patrick's school.
"They were just sitting there quietly and Brother Best
and another brother came at them from each side and king-hit them," he
said.
It was a rare occasion that the brothers chose to assault two boys capable of defending themselves.
The boys turned on them and were duly expelled.
"We were in high school by then and knew a bit more," the man said.
"I was lucky enough that I got to be able to handle myself and I could stop them.
"Before that I got plenty of beatings, but I'd rather have copped that than what the other kids were getting."
For younger victims there was no defence against the
perversions committed by men who were supposed to be teaching and
guiding them, he said.
"They just hunted like a pack of dogs."
The man, who cannot be named, said Best and Dowlan created an air of "pathological violence" at St Patrick's.
"You knew straight away that if you were sent to the back
of the room or to the sports room, Dowlan would have his hand down your
pants," the man said.
"If you pushed him away or told him to f*** off, he'd beat the shit out of you.
"It happened to me many times."
The man, who is now in his late 40s, said he couldn't
accept the assurances offered this week by the Bishop of Ballarat, Peter
Connors, that an inquiry into the suicides of dozens of boys abused by
Best and others in Victoria would be of little use.
"The entire hierarchy of the church in Ballarat at that time has to be held accountable," he said.
"It isn't possible that they didn't know when every boy in the school knew.
"The previous bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Mulkearns, knew about it."
Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who is now retired, has previously acknowledged he was aware of Ridsdale's "problems" in 1975.
Australia's Catholic leader Cardinal George Pell was the Episcopal Vicar for Education in Ballarat from 1973-84.
At Ridsdale's 1994 trial, it was claimed the church had sent him to a psychologist as early as 1971.
By a tragic coincidence, one of the man's cousins was
assaulted by Best at another school.
He is one of at least 26 men police
believe have committed suicide as a result of sexual assaults at the
hands of Best, Ridsdale and other brothers and priests.