Australia: Christian Brother Desmond Richards ('Brother Neil') convicted across multiple rounds of abusing students at NSW Christian Brothers schools; conviction upheld on appeal

Proceedings

1. 2014-11-26 · sentence

   District Court of New South Wales. Judge Peter Zahra sentenced Desmond Richards to a minimum of two years' imprisonment for indecently assaulting four boys aged 11 to 13 at Christian Brothers schools in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Sydney, and at a school camp, in the 1970s and 1980s. The judge found Richards 'took advantage of the power he could assert as a teacher.'

2. 2018-01-01 · further sentence

   District Court of New South Wales. While already serving his earlier custodial sentence, Richards was further sentenced for offences against students in Years 5 and 6 committed at St Patrick's in 1986 and 1987.

3. 2023-05-19 · sentence appeal

   Supreme Court of New South Wales, Court of Criminal Appeal. Richards v R [2023] NSWCCA 107: leave to appeal against sentence granted but the appeal itself dismissed; the Court of Criminal Appeal held the total sentence was not manifestly excessive given the maximum penalties, seriousness of the offences, three victims, and Richards's substantial (by then multi-round) criminal history.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• used his authority as a teacher and Christian Brother to isolate vulnerable and 'problem' students, per the sentencing judge's own finding that he 'took advantage of the power he could assert as a teacher'
• physically punished victims to ensure their silence
• offended at multiple schools and at a school camp over four decades; the church received complaints more than a decade before police did, and merely moved him to non-teaching roles rather than reporting him