Broken Rites Australia - researching the Catholic cover-up

From 1964 to 1994, Father Richard Cattell was a Catholic priest in parishes around Sydney. A boy who was sexually abused by Cattell in 1973 eventually told  police (twenty years later) about the abuse. This resulted in Cattell being jailed in 1994 after pleading guilty. This 1994 court case, researched by Broken Rites, demonstrates that church victims should report sexual crimes to the civil authorities, not to the offending organisation (the church). (Article updated 7 March 2014.)

The Bankstown Express in suburban Sydney (30 August 1994) reported that Bankstown Local Court on 23 August 1994 dismissed two charges of aggravated indecent assault that had been laid against Brother Edward Mamo, then aged 49, who was a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart religious order.

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In New South Wales on 2 May 2012, a Catholic priest was convicted on multiple child sex offences after a five-week trial. A jury found the priest guilty of all 23 counts of indecent or sexual assault against boys as young as eight years old. The incidents occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. For legal reasons, the priest's name cannot be published at this stage but the court will allow publication of the name in due course. (This kind of temporary suppression-order frequently happens, for good reason, in criminal proceedings.)

Broken Rites Australia receives no funding from government or church organisations. We rely on donations from supporters.

You can donate to Broken Rites in two ways:

1. Deposit your donation directly into our  Commonwealth Bank account:
Account title: Broken Rites Australia Collective Inc.
BSB: 063-113
Account number: 11112454

OR

A Catholic boys' secondary school, St Pius X College in Chatswood, on Sydney's North Shore, issued a circular on Wednesday afternoon, 4 March 2015, saying that a Christian Brother from Chatswood has been placed on leave because he is facing court charges re offences allegedly committed at Goulburn in south-western New South Wales in the 1980s. Broken Rites has obtained a copy of the circular, which reads as follows.

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Broken Rites Australia has expanded its article about former Catholic priest David Edwin Rapson, who was convicted in 1992 for sexually assaulting a schoolboy. To see the expanded article, click HERE.

To see the full Broken Rites story about Father Gerald Ridsdale (and how the church protected him), click HERE.

To see the full Broken Rites story about Father Frank Klep (and how the church protected him), click HERE.

Phone: Broken Rites Australia national hotline:  (03) 9457 4999
Mail:  Broken Rites (Australia) Collective Inc.  PO Box 163, ROSANNA, Victoria 3084, Australia
Email: Click HERE for our email address

The correct spelling of our organisation is "Broken Rites" and not "Broken Rights" nor "Brokenrights". We help victims of church related sex-abuse.

This page explains how Broken Rites keeps track of Australian court cases regarding clergy child-sex abuse.

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In 1998 Broken Rites received news of the tragic death of Father Maurie Crocker, a priest at St Mary's Catholic Church, Berkeley, in the Wollongong diocese, New South Wales.