A 90-year-old grandmother has told the Royal Commission about the night her 13-year-old son killed himself in 1974, probably after abuse by Marist Brothers religious at Hamilton.
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Audrey Nash spoke about how the Catholic church she had loved and served all her life had turned its back on her and how a senior figure in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese excused the behaviour of its paedophile priests and religious by saying “it had been going on forever”.
Mrs Nash said that a few years ago she spoke with a diocese figure after a Sunday mass about Andrew, and he said: “Look, Aud, it’s been going on forever. The Romans had their little boys, the Greeks had their little boys and the English Aristocrats had their little boys.”
“I said: ‘And that makes it all right does it?’ I have not spoken to him since.”
Mrs Nash began her evidence by saying she had no hesitation in enrolling Andrew at Marist Brothers at Hamilton even though an older son, CQT, had told her about the violence of the school and about the brothers putting their hands in pupils’ pants, because it was where most of the Catholic boys in the area went.
CQT gave his evidence earlier on Tuesday.
She spoke about a day in March or April 1974 when he had arrived home uncharacteristically late from school, when all he would tell her was that he had been to Bar Beach.
The commission has heard that Bar Beach was a favourite haunt of paedophile religious Brother Romuald.
Breaking down in tears as she recounted the day that Andrew died, October 8, 1974, Mrs Nash said he had asked her to iron his sports clothes for the next day.
He had gone to his bedroom to do his homework. His sister had asked Mrs Nash for an eraser, and she told her to get one from Andrew.
Her daughter said she could not get into the room, and when she got her mother, they got the door open and “found him, he had hung himself behind the door”.
She and her daughter were screaming, CQT tried to get Andrew down from the hook on the door, and she ran into the street because they had no phone.
She got a taxi driver to hail an ambulance and a priest.
She said Father Bill Burston arrived, followed by the principal of Piux X, Father Tom Brennan and Father Patrick Helferty, followed by three Marist brothers, Christopher, Romuald and John.
She said Romuald asked her if Andrew had left a note or said anything and when she said that “they all got in a little huddle, all of them in the middle room, and had a little chat, and then they all left”.
She said that after the funeral she never saw or heard anything again from the Marists.
Mrs Nash said she met Vince Ryan in 1976 when she was working in the presbytery and helping out with cleaning and cooking one day a week.
He had told her he had been to Melbourne for a course but he did not tell her that he had been sent there by Father Cotter.
Mrs Nash said Ryan had told her “he didn’t get on with girls” and regularly had groups of “primary aged school boys” in his bedroom but she never thought there was anything inappropriate about it.
She said it was not until 1998 when Ryan was charged that she began to think about her son Andrew.
“I’m just starting to think this is what has happened to my Andrew,” Mrs Nash said.
She said when Romuald was charged in 2013
She believed the three brothers came to her house the night of his death to look for any evidence of the abuse.
“Not one of the brothers or priests ever came to our house again,” she said.
She said she asked a police officer if they could ask Romuald if he had abused Andrew but they never heard anything more about it.
A few years ago, after Andrew’s death was in a newspaper article, Mrs Nash said a sister of mercy arrived at her home and came in and burst into tears and said she knew nothing about any abuse and left.
The next day another sister, a teacher at his primary school, also started crying and also left.
The next Sunday she spoke after a mass to a diocesan figure whose name was redacted by the Royal Commission.
“He rang me and arranged to come to my house on the next Friday. When he arrived, I began talking to him about Andrew, and he was still still saying he knew nothing . . . .
“I think he got a bit fed up, because he said in an angry sort of way, he said: ‘Look, Aud, it’s been going on forever. The Romans had their little boys, the Greeks had their little boys and the English Aristocrats had their little boys.’
“I said: ‘And that makes it all right does it?’ I have not spoken to him since.”
