Former De La Salle headmaster facing seven new child abuse charges

A Catholic brother who admitted to abusing boys at a Brisbane school has been charged with new offences after more victims came forward.

A Catholic brother already in jail for abusing children is facing new charges.

Former De La Salle brother Frank Terrence Keating, 77, is in a Victorian jail serving time for indecently assaulting either students during the 1970s while teaching at a Melbourne college.

Keating has been convicted of a litany of child sex offences committed against children in Victoria and Queensland from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.

In September 2019 the former headmaster of De La Salle College at Scarborough, now called Southern Cross Catholic College, pleaded guilty to six more charges including indecent treatment of a child, indecent dealing with a boy under 14 and indecent dealing with a boy under 17.

The offences occurred at the Redcliffe peninsula school between January 1981 and July, 1989.

Keating was due to be sentenced earlier this month, but at a brief mention in the Brisbane District Court in September last year it was revealed that the sentence hearing had to be delayed.

The court was told three more alleged victims from the Scarborough school had come forward and police were investigating the historic offences which allegedly dated back to the 80s.

Redcliffe Magistrates Court heard today that police had charged Keating with another seven offences – these include: four counts of indecent treatment of boys aged under 17 and three counts of carnal knowledge of any person against the order of knowledge.

The matter was adjourned to Brisbane Magistrates Court on February 17 to coincide with other matters.

Police have charged the former headmaster of De La Salle College at Scarborough, now called Southern Cross Catholic College, with seven new child abuse offences.

More than 20 years ago, Keating pleaded guilty to molesting a 13-year-old student of the Scarborough school when he was the deputy principal in the mid-80s.

Keating has also been convicted and jailed in Victoria for abusing students.

In 1998, Keating was sentenced to three years’ jail, suspended after eight months after pleading guilty to molesting 12 boys at De La Salle Malvern in the 70s.

Keating was last before the courts in 2018 when he was sentenced to five years and three months in jail for abusing eight boys, aged 11 to 15, while at the Melbourne school.

*For 24-hour support phone Queensland’s DVConnect on 1800 811 811 or MensLine on 1800 600 636, NSW’s Domestic Violence Line on 1800 656 463 or the national hotline 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).