Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Hamilton and Pagewood, New South Wales, Australia · 2015

Australia: Marist Brother Francis Cable ('Brother Romuald') convicted across two proceedings of sexually abusing children at Hamilton and Pagewood

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Francis Cable, known as Brother Romuald, Marist Brother and teacher at Marist Brothers Hamilton and Pagewood schools, New South Wales, 1960s-1970s

Organization

Marist Brothers, New South Wales

Spiritual nexus

Cable's victims were students in his own classes at Marist-run schools, wholly subject to his authority as both teacher and member of the religious order operating the institution.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2015-01-01 · conviction after trial and guilty pleas; sentence

    Newcastle District Court, New South Wales, Australia. Cable was found guilty of sexually abusing two Marist Brothers Hamilton students following trial and pleaded guilty to further offences against 17 other victims at Hamilton and Pagewood Marist between 1960 and the 1970s; he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The sentencing judge described the school environment as 'an environment of evil'.

  2. 2019-01-01 · guilty plea and further sentence

    Newcastle District Court, New South Wales, Australia. Charged in 2017 with a further 14 offences against five additional victims, Cable pleaded guilty in late 2018 and was sentenced in 2019 to a further maximum eight years' imprisonment, with a five-year non-parole period, on top of his 2015 sentence.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • classroom and school authority as a Marist Brother over students at two Marist-run schools
  • a sentencing judge's own description of the school environment under Cable as 'an environment of evil'

Primary record

Sources

regional newspaper court reporting sentencing report Newcastle Herald, 'Brother Romuald terrified boys at Marist Brothers, Hamilton, but will probably die in jail' (2015).

Reports the 16-year sentence, the 'environment of evil' description, and the number of victims covered by the 2015 proceeding.

regional newspaper court reporting court reporting Newcastle Herald, 'Francis Cable, 86, known as Marist Brother Romuald, now guilty of sexually abusing 24 former students' (2018).

Reports the 2018 guilty plea to the further charges and the cumulative victim count.

regional newspaper court reporting court reporting Newcastle Herald, 'Francis William Cable, also known as Brother Romuald, dies in custody' (2021).

Confirms his death in custody, with both convictions standing at the time.

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