A CATHOLIC Brother who sacked a teacher but did not report him to police after child sex allegations in the 1970s will not be charged because it was not in the public interest, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has advised NSW Police.
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Retired Central Coast Catholic schools director Brother Anthony Whelan’s lack of a criminal history, and the minor penalty applying to the relevant 1970s law, were factors in the decision to end a second police investigation into his time as principal of St Patricks College at Sutherland without further action.
This is despite a confidential Catholic Commission investigation report which found teacher Thomas Keady sexually assaulted Salt Ash man Rob Lipari at the school when he was 11, and Brother Whelan sacked Keady two years later, in 1979, when four more boys reported him for ‘‘sexual misconduct’’.
Brother Whelan told Catholic Commission investigator, retired NSW Police assistant commissioner Norm Maroney, in 2010 that he advised the boys to tell their parents but did not report Keady to police.
Keady served a jail term in Victoria for indecent assault of a minor before moving to NSW and working at the Sutherland school. Brother Whelan was not at the school when Keady was employed. Keady was convicted of another indecent assault at Wyong in 1994.
The mother of one of Keady’s victims said she was disappointed by the DPP decision after making a statement to police that she was not aware of her son’s sexual abuse until a year ago.
‘‘That was the awful part, knowing that someone at the school knew, and we didn’t know for all these years,’’ the woman said.
‘‘My boy’s suffered for it. I think there’s been a lot more go on that we don’t know about, but the Royal Commission will bring all that out, I guess.’’
Mr Lipari said the two police investigations prompted by his complaint to the Catholic church and police in 2010 were not about the late Thomas Keady.
‘‘The investigations were about an official who became a knowledgeable official, and who made a decision to do nothing about the knowledge for more than 30 years,’’ Mr Lipari said.
‘‘He second-guessed the police in the 1970s. Keady was to some degree tried and convicted by Whelan, but Whelan made the wrong decision.
‘‘I’m not going to fall in a heap over it because the picture is bigger than just one case, which is what the Royal Commission is about.’’
A DPP spokeswoman said it did not comment on matters referred to it by police.
Sutherland police confirmed that no further action would be taken and Brother Whelan had been advised.
