A former Christchurch boys’ school priest who sexually abused boarders in his care has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison.
Father Rowan Maxwell Donoghue, 69, was sentenced in Christchurch District Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty in October to six charges of sexual offending at St Bede’s College between 1996 and 2000.
Judge Jane Farish said the shame felt by Donoghue’s victims should rest solely on his shoulders.
“Hopefully, now that black secret is out of the wardrobe, they no longer hold the shame they never should’ve had to hold,” she said.
She commended their courage, and hoped the positive steps they had since taken would continue.
“The scars won’t disappear, but I hope the intensity of scars will lessen over time.”
The judge highlighted the victims’ vulnerability, the breach of trust ‒ not only to the victims, but to the parents who trusted him to care for their sons, and to the school who employed him ‒ and Donoghue’s abuse of power, as a priest with access and control of the school dormitory.
Donoghue pleaded guilty on October 29 last year to six charges, and was remanded in custody until he was sentenced on Wednesday. Two other charges were dismissed at trial.
His convictions were subject to interim name suppression until January 28, when Judge Farish lifted the order.
At sentencing, the awful extent of his offending was laid bare. One man cried as he read his victim impact statement in court, recalling Donoghue’s “disgusting, invasive” abuse.
“I was unaware how dark my path would be,” he said, “And it got dark.”
“The impact on my life has been hard… [I have been] broken and at times suicidal.
“You broke my trust and you broke me.”
Another victim described the excitement, nerves, and determination he had as a young boy heading to St Bede’s College as a boarder, eager to prove to his father how he would become a man.
“He committed these crimes when I was most vulnerable,” he said. “No family ‒ just me, in the lion’s den.”
He often wondered “what life could’ve been” if he wasn’t sexually abused.
“Imagine trying to mature, change, fit in sexually, academically, do well in sport, when you have to chuck sexual abuse in there? It’s something no kid should ever have to figure out.”
Instead, he became “a kid out of control”. He abused drugs and alcohol to numb his thoughts and struggled to keep a job.
Another victim who developed similar substance abuse issues, spoke of being “profoundly violated” by “someone I was taught to trust without question”.
“While often I may have appeared normal, I was dealing with the lasting effects caused by that man.”
Crown prosecutor Courtney Martyn said no sentence would adequately reflect the harm the men experienced.
“He was a parental substitute. He was to care for those boarders day and night… he was able to exploit that.”
The offending followed a pattern of grossly abusive behaviour, she said.
“Extent and repetition shows it was not opportunistic, rather predatory. The victim impact [statements] shows all the shame that was not theirs to carry.
“His role as a priest allowed him to access vulnerable children, which he continued for a prolonged period.”
Donoghue’s lawyer Josh Lucas said the priest was “profoundly sorry” for the hurt he’d caused not only to the victims, but how it has rippled into their communities.
“Nothing I can say make things right with victims and community,” Lucas said. “He has abused them, and he is sorry. He’s sorry he’s let the victims, his society, his family, the school, all down.”
Lucas said Donoghue understood he would be going to prison, but argued a significant discount for early pleas was warranted.
Judge Farish noted his remorse, but considered the scale of Donoghue’s offending high. She sentenced him to seven years and eight months in prison.
“You have shown rehabilitative efforts… but there is still further work to be done.”
Years of abuse
Donoghue was employed by St Bede’s from 1993 to 2000.
He was thanked in the 2000 magazine for his “genuine care and concern” for students upon his departure.
It said Donoghue had undertaken many roles, including maths and religious education, musical director, cricket and rugby coach, editor of the Bedean magazine, school photographer, ski trip organiser, and “celebrant at liturgies”.
“And these are only the things that the school administration knew about!!” the magazine concluded.
But from 1996, the priest repeatedly groped, rubbed, massaged and performed indecent or sexual acts on boarders under his care, according to the summary of facts.
Donoghue’s first listed victim was repeatedly assaulted at night in his dorm in 1996. Boarders slept in pods of four beds, which were separated by low partition walls.
Donoghue, then the “Dormitory Master”, would sit on the 13-year-old’s bed “and console him” as he struggled with homesickness.
This started as rubbing the boy’s back and shoulders, but progressed to other areas, the summary said. Donoghue also massaged the victim in his private bedroom.
The priest assaulted two other victims, aged 13 and 16, in similar fashion during later years, using massages to begin his offending.
A fourth victim was subjected to Donoghue’s massages and assaults from 1997 to 2000.
“The frequency of offending was such that the victim felt like it was at times a nightly occurrence,” the summary said.
When this victim was moved to a single room in 2000, at age 16, Donoghue’s crimes escalated to sexual violation.
Before joining St Bede’s College in 1993, he taught for 11 years at St Patrick’s College Silverstream, when a blurb about Donoghue’s arrival in the 1993 St Bede’s magazine stated: “Silverstream’s loss is St Bede’s gain.”
St Bede’s is conducting its own investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse, but the Government’s chief victims adviser Justice Ruth Money called on them to hand it over to independent investigators.
“Without expert investigation and support, they are failing,” she said in February.
This came after Donoghue’s conviction and RNZ revealing another former priest of the school, former rector Fr Brian Cummings, was also accused of abuse by three complainants in 1996, 2014 and 2023.
Cummings, who died in 2022, “strenuously denied” the allegations, RNZ reported.
After the sentencing, police said they were pleased to see justice done for Donoghue’s victims “who had the bravery to come forward and tell their stories.
“Our complainants have taken another step in paving the way for others to come forward, to have a voice and to not be silenced or shamed.”
Police urged anyone who would like to make a complaint or to report similar offending, to make contact online at 105.police.govt.nz or call 105.