Sex abuse victims turn down payout

File photo / APN

Two victims of historic sexual abuse by former Marist brother Bede Thomas Hampton - jailed today for two and a half years - have refused his offer of an emotional harm payout.

The men, now middle-aged, neither wanted nor would accept money from the 62-year-old.

"They regard it as an insult - a way to buy yourself out of trouble," Justice Forrest Miller said at Hampton's sentencing in the High Court of Wellington today.

It was never about money for them, but about Hampton accepting responsibility for his offending in the early 1970s while he was a teacher and the two complainants were boarders at St Joseph's College in Masterton, the court heard.

Substantial reparation, understood to be $10,000 which would have been borrowed from family, had been offered while Hampton sought home detention.

Hampton lives in Australia with his wife and children and would have had to have served home detention at his brother's residence in Christchurch.

But Justice Miller said flatly: "Home detention will not be granted."

Hampton, who left the Marist order when he was 29, admitted two charges of indecent assault at the start of his week-long trial last month and still denies the remainder.

A jury found him guilty of 10 more, along with one of committing an indecent act.

He was acquitted on two counts of sodomy and eight further indecency charges.

Justice Miller said both victims had been vulnerable boys and the shame and anger they felt had affected their lives.

"You were their teacher. You exploited your authority over them. They had little opportunity to get away from you," he told Hampton.

"You flatly deny your offending was sexually motivated. (But)Your motivation was manifestly sexual."

Although accepting that Hampton greatly regretted his past behaviour, the judge said the concern was more over the impact on himself. He lacked empathy for the victims.

Nor could Hampton "displace blame" onto the Marist order, the judge said.

Many colleagues in the religious life "appear to have discharged with honour their responsibility to the boys".

He told that Hampton that until the matter "came to light" in 2002 "you must have thought you had got away with it."

Although the delays were not all his fault he had contributed substantially with his reluctance to stand trial. Had he not come back to New Zealand when he did, the next step would have been extradition.

Hampton had moved to Australia after deciding he was not suited to the religious life and had been married for 25 years, Justice Miller said.

"I accept you have been a good citizen, husband and father."

He was a design partner with his wife in a Queensland-based interior decorating company which, along with his family, had suffered. The business carried substantial debts and appeared likely to fail.

The judge questioned the Marist Brothers' role after allegations against Hampton were taken to them, before complaints were laid with the police.

It could seem to be a conflict of interest with possible grounds for civil proceedings.

Marist practice was "to seek a path to healing through faith - which may not happen," Justice Miller said.

With Hampton long since out of the order and its jurisdiction, the complainants should have been encouraged to go directly to the police and let them investigate.

The Marists could give spiritual guidance, if that was what victims wanted, he said.

Outside the court, a sister of one of the complainants said her brother would be happy with the sentencing as an acknowledgement of what had been done to him as a boy.

The trial process had been "shocking" for him and he could not face returning to court for the sentencing.

She said her brother had never spoken to the family about the abuse before he finally went to the police. Their mother still did not know.

"The (Catholic) Church needs to take more responsibility for what they preach," she said.

- NZPA