Alleged abusers named as Nudgee Junior College scandal deepens

More former students have come forward with claims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of at least two Christian Brothers at Nudgee Junior College.

More than 20 Nudgee Junior College old boys have come forward following allegations of sexual and physical abuse at the school. File picture

More than 20 old boys of Nudgee Junior College have come forward with fresh allegations of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of at least two Christian Brothers.

Former principals Brother Michael Carthage Proctor and Brother John Regan have been identified as the chief alleged abusers of children aged 8 to 12 at the prestigious Indooroopilly boarding school in the 1960s and 1970s respectively.

Jed McNamara, special counsel at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, said he expected more Brothers to be named as the number of calls from witnesses continued to climb following The Courier-Mail reporting allegations against the Catholic school on the weekend.

“Proctor and Regan are popping up the most,” Mr McNamara said.

They were physically brutal to the kids as well as being sexually abusive, with one nicknamed ‘Brother Brutal’.”

Jed McNamara, special counsel at Maurice Blackburn.

The Courier-Mail has also been contacted by men, now aged in their 50s and 60s, who claim they or their friends were abused or lucky to escape abuse.

One described the paedophile ring in Brisbane as “a very small world”, adding “so much went on in those days that no-one spoke about”.

He said a Brother (not Proctor or Regan), who left the school and the religious order in the early 1970s and moved next door to his friend in Coorparoo, took him and his friend, both then 12, to the Ekka in 1974 or ‘75.

“He claimed to be mates with (Frederick) Roy Hoskins, the principal of the prep school at Churchie (Anglican Church Grammar School) who was later convicted of paedophilia (in 2004),” he said.

“He tried to abuse my friend, who told his parents straight away so got away unharmed, I think.”

Another man, 69, said he was “viciously slapped across the face three times in a row” by yet another Brother while boarding at the school as a 12 year old.

“As a boarder you have no one you can turn to and I was bawling; I’d done nothing wrong.”

On May 14, Maurice Blackburn advertised in The Courier-Mail asking for help from people who attended Nudgee Junior between 1965 and 1985.

In 2019 the Catholic Church quietly settled a multimillion-dollar damages claim in the Supreme Court by siblings John and Bill O’Leary, who accused Br Regan of “terrifying’’ physical attacks in the 1970s, including knocking them unconscious.

Former Nudgee Junior College captain John O'Leary (left) and his brother Bill.

Br Proctor was previously also the subject of investigations by legal firm Moody Law which described him as “a violent person who took pleasure in dishing out physical punishment”.

A spokesperson for the Christian Brothers Oceania Province has declined to comment on the latest allegations.

In 2007 the Christian Brothers handed governance of Nudgee Junior and its 50-plus schools to Edmund Rice Education Australia, which now also runs St Joseph’s Nudgee, St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace, St Laurence’s, St James and St Patrick’s in Brisbane.

In 2015, Nudgee Junior was renamed Ambrose Treacy College and currently has 1320 students spanning Years 4 to 12.