FOR three decades Hunter Catholic school principal Steve Murray buried memories of being sexually assaulted by a Marist Brother, for more than a decade he tried to hold the Catholic Church to account, and by 2012 “I had given up because they were too hard to fight”.
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Mr Murray has broken his silence to thank the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, commissioners, and former prime minister Julia Gillard for establishing the historic inquiry, at the end of the 57th and final public hearing on Friday.
Shine the Light: the Newcastle Herald’s complete Royal Commission coverage
The royal commission gave Mr Murray, 63, of Fern Bay, and many thousands of other Australian child sexual abuse survivors “justice, strength and hope”, he said.
“I was up and running again because of the royal commission. I had a private hearing with the commission, I made a statement to police and I went back to the church to have my case re-opened.”
Mr Murray was groomed, drugged and sexually abused by the late Marist Brother Vales, whose real name was William Beninati, at the Marist Brothers’ flagship school, St Joseph’s College, Hunter's Hill, between 1966 and 1969.
The assaults ended when Mr Murray, then aged 15, confronted Brother Vales.
Like many thousands of child sexual abuse survivors Mr Murray finished school, gained a job, married, raised a family and appeared to live a normal life for decades.
He qualified as a Catholic school teacher and taught at Hunter Catholic schools at Glendale, Edgeworth, Mayfield and Kotara South. He was a deputy principal from 1983, principal of St Benedict’s, Edgeworth, from 1986, and principal at St James Primary School, Kotara South from 1996, during a period when the Hunter was first confronted with child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church after Father Vince Ryan was charged with child sex offences against young boys.
From that time Steve Murray’s carefully constructed defences against the dark memories of his past began to unravel, and the secrets he had not even disclosed to his wife dominated his life and thoughts.
I was up and running again because of the royal commission. I had a private hearing with the commission, I made a statement to police and I went back to the church to have my case re-opened.
- Child sexual abuse survivor Steve Murray
By 1999 he sought professional help, by 2000 he took extended sick leave, and by 2002, aged 49, he resigned from the Catholic school system and has not worked as a teacher again.
In 2003 he made a complaint about Brother Vales to the Marist Brothers under the Catholic Church’s Towards Healing process.
“The lying bastards said there hadn’t been any complaints before mine, but he’d already been charged by the time I came forward. They’d had other complaints,” Mr Murray said.
He was offered $20,000 after the church’s professional standards office advised that “we may have a small problem here”, because Mr Murray asked a solicitor to represent him.
He accepted the money out of need and exhaustion, and because the Towards Healing process offered little emotional support.
“I got absolutely smashed at that (Towards Healing). It was just bloody horrible,” Mr Murray said.
What he did not know until years later – after his royal commission private hearing and statement to police – was that the Marist Brothers had complaints about Brother Vales from at least the early 1990s. In May, 2003 Catholic Church Insurances Ltd advised the Marist Brothers it would not cover any claims involving Vales because the Brothers had not reported prior complaints about him.
It would be years after his Towards Healing complaint before Mr Murray obtained documents between a church lawyer and Catholic Church Insurances in 2003 noting that although Brother Vales denied the allegations against him, the then Marist Brothers leader Brother Alexis Turton “has difficulty with this and (to be blunt) does not believe Brother Vales’s denial”.
The lying bastards said there hadn’t been any complaints before mine, but he’d already been charged by the time I came forward. They’d had other complaints.
- Child sexual abuse survivor Steve Murray
Police attempted to charge Brother Vales in 2013 with the sexual assault of Steve Murray in 1969 but the 85-year-old was terminally ill and died a few months later.
Mr Murray negotiated a substantial settlement against the Marist Brothers after investigations unearthed damning documents about the order’s knowledge of Vales’s offences against boys.
In February the royal commission revealed that 20 per cent, or one in five, Marist Brothers were alleged child sex offenders. The order has so far paid more than $31 million in compensation to 286 complainants, with an average payment of $109,000.
Brother Vales’s record of service with the Marist Brothers shows very frequent moves between Marist primary and high schools between 1947 and 1994, with regular extended breaks including periods in Rome.
“Before the royal commission it was just you against the church, and they were too hard to fight. You can’t beat them on your own. They’re too big so you just give up,” Mr Murray said.
“When the royal commission was announced I knew I had a chance from there on in. I could do battle again. I knew I wasn’t alone.”