Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Morisset, NSW, Australia · 2019

Australia: Brother Bernard McGrath given 62 years across two trials for abusing resident boys

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Brother and principal of a residential boys' home

Organization

St John of God Brothers, Kendall Grange, Morisset

Spiritual nexus

The victims were boys resident at a religious institutional home where the defendant, as Brother and principal, held total custodial and spiritual authority.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation
  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2018-02-16 · two conviction rounds

    NSW District Court, Australia. Bernard McGrath was sentenced on 16 February 2018 to 33 years for 64 offences against 12 boys at the Kendall Grange residential institution, and in 2019 to a further 29 years for offences against 15 more boys. The judge found systemic abuse occurred under his tenure as principal. He also had a prior 1997 New Zealand-related conviction.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • total custodial and religious authority over resident boys

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting sentencing report 'Justice at long last: Bernard McGrath jailed for 33 years', Newcastle Herald, 16 Feb. 2018.

Reports the first conviction round and sentence.

national newspaper court reporting sentencing report 'Predator jailed until 2053', Newcastle Herald (2019).

Reports the second round and cumulative term.

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