John Patrick O’Brien, Marist Brothers at St Joseph’s College, guilty of indecent acts

A dorm master who took advantage of his position to abuse teen boys would call out at night to see if anyone responded, a court has heard.

The sentence of a former St Joseph’s College boarding master has been adjourned.

A boarding master at an elite Sydney school who took advantage of his position to abuse teen boys has had his sentence delayed after technical difficulties interrupted proceedings.

John Patrick O’Brien faced Lismore District Court on Friday, convicted of 18 charges of an indecent act with a male.

The allegations against O’Brien were originally raised at Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse.

The court was told Mr O’Brien sexually abused boys, aged 14 and 15, at St Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill from 1966 to 1970.

O’Brien was 26 at the time and had just got his commission but would later become principal of Marist College Kogarah.

O’Brien was also one of the three Marist Brothers who attended the Nash house in Hamilton on the 1974 night 13-year-old Andrew Nash took his own life.

The Marist Brothers and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese have accepted that Andrew Nash died by suicide after being sexually abused by Francis William Cable, known as Brother Romuald.

The three Marist Brothers, who included O’Brien, asked if Andrew had left a note but when told he hadn’t, they quickly left.

Friday’s court proceedings fell on the 47th anniversary of his death.

Judge Warwick Hunt said he was ready to hand down a sentence on Friday but the matter was delayed because a large number of people who connected to the hearing through a video link could not turn their microphones to mute.

Those in attendance included O’Brien’s close family as well as a number of survivors.

A crown prosecutor said O’Brien’s position as dorm master in a school which used strict regimen and corporal punishment was an aggravating feature.

“In many ways, they were under his direct authority for many aspects of their lives before they went to classes, after they went to classes and at night when they were sleeping,” he said.

St Joseph’s College at Hunters Hill

The prosecutor said many of the students came from rural NSW, or even overseas, and were cut off from their family with “no realistic means to complain”.

“They were, for all intents and purposes, alone within that institution for lengthy periods without contact from family and parents,” he said.

“Offences were initiated whilst the victims had been in their beds in the dorm, after lights out, and were summoned in some manner to go to the offender’s cubicle.”

The court heard O’Brien acted with a degree of planning and used his “good character” to put himself in a position of authority.

“It is clear through the victim impact statements that the actions by this offender have remained to varying degrees with each of these men throughout their adult lives,” the prosecutor said.

“And at least two of them have said to the effect that it had been the source of guilt and shame for them for many years.”

O’Brien’s solicitor Avni Djemal disagreed with all of the prosecution’s aggravating features except O’Brien’s position of authority.

Mr Djemal said there was no evidence before or after O’Brien’s time at St Joseph’s that he had engaged in further sexual abuse or that he significantly pre-planned the acts.

“There is no evidence this man became a Brother and part of the order and then manoeuvred his way into the school in order to commit these offences,” he said.

“Some of (the offences) was a matter of calling out at night to see if anyone responded.”

He argued O’Brien did not have a say what school or position he was placed into.

Judge Hunt adjourned the sentence to October 29 at Lismore District Court.

O’Brien will remain in custody.