These victims, now in their fifties, bring an offender to justice after 36 years

  • By a Broken Rites researcher, article posted 12 June 2019

A former teacher, Kevin Wilmore Myers, now aged 73, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 11 June 2019, charged with having committed sexual offences against a number of boys at a Catholic secondary college in south-western Victoria in the early 1960s. Myers is pleading guilty. The magistrate placed a non-publication order on the name of the school in order to protect the privacy of the victims, who are now aged in their fifties. This order can be reviewed when Myers returns to court for sentencing. Former students allege that, in the 1960s, the school covered up the Myers problem.

The school, now catering for boys and girls, was originally two separate schools: a school for boys, conducted by the Christian Brothers; and an adjoining school for girls, conducted by nuns. The two schools began to amalgamate in 1980, the year when Myers arrived there as a lay teacher. He was there until 1982. During the 1980s, there were still some Christian Brothers at the amalgamated school, as well as some nuns, but the number of lay teachers gradually increased.

When police arrested Myers in Brisbane in October 2018, he had been living in Rockhampton, Queensland. He was extradited back to Victoria, where he was charged in the Melbourne Magistrates Court with sexual offences against eight boys at the south-west Victorian school.

He was also charged with some sexual offences which were committed against other victims in Melbourne (these Melbourne offences were not related to a school).

At another court appearance on 11 June 2019, Myers faced a total of 44 charges in south-western Victoria and in Melbourne. Myers pleaded guilty to eight of the charges. The prosecutors withdrew the remaining charges.

Kevin Wilmore Myers is due to face a plea hearing in late 2019 with a judge at a higher court, the Victorian County Court. The judge will hear submissions from the prosecutors and the defence about what kind of sentence the court should impose on Myers. Any victim will have the opportunity to submit an impact statement to the court, telling the judge how Myers' abuse has affected a victim's life. These submission help the judge to determine an appropriate sentence.

The Victoria Police officer who is handling the Kevin Myers case is Senior Detective Nigel Freebairn, of the Sex Crimes Squad in central Melbourne.

FOOTNOTE: A former student, who remembers Kevin Myers being a teacher at the south-west Victoria school, has told Broken Rites: "I’m certain that the school or church at no stage informed parents about any of the Kevin Myers problem but suddenly Myers left one day. And we students knew why."