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CANBERRA - Australia's oldest Catholic boarding school has been rocked by a sex scandal that has led to charges against one former priest and may spread to others.
St Stanislaus College in the New South Wales country city of Bathurst has promised full co-operation in a police investigation that so far includes allegations of abuse of 13 former students in the 1980s.
"It is imperative that the Catholic Church addresses issues of alleged sexual misconduct towards children as openly and as comprehensively as possible," principal John Edwards said.
One alleged victim has described bizarre rituals in which boys were taken into a room by priests chanting in tongues and either assaulted or forced to sexually abuse each other.
The former border, now aged 35, told Sydney's Daily Telegraph that his twice-weekly abuse had started in the 1980s when a priest had singled him out for private tutoring about God and the Catholic Church.
"They got a group of between eight and 12 of us together and they'd just start chanting and I would wake up during these sessions and see what was going on," he said.
Edwards confirmed allegations of late-night sexual abuse committed during prayers and chanting, and said he had passed internet material received several years ago to the police.
Former priest Brian Joseph Spillane, 65, appeared in Bathurst Local Court in July charged with 33 offences, including sexual intercourse with boys aged 10 to 16 under his authority, six counts of sexual intercourse with students aged 11, 12 and 13, and other offences involving gross indecency.
Police are investigating the possible involvement of other teachers.
Edwards, the college's first lay head, told Fairfax radio yesterday that police had named other former staff members in a search warrant served last month.
The charges against Spillane were laid after an alleged victim went to the police in August last year, sparking the formation of Task Force Heador.
The task force has so far identified five victims, and a further eight possible victims.
Detective Superintendent Michael Goodwin urged any other victims of alleged abuse to come forward, in the strictest confidence, and said investigations did not involve present staff.
The college, founded in 1867 as the gold rush brought new waves of migrants to the region 200km west of Sydney, is run by priests and brothers of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, a charitable order honouring a 16th century French saint.
It is named after a Polish martyr executed after a dispute with his king. Charging boarders up to A$18,000 ($22,025) a year, St Stanislaus boasts a glittering alumni that includes former Wallabies, political leaders and judges.
