Gerard McNamara fronts court over sexual abuse of boy

A vile Marist Brother pedophile who has been preying on young boys for decades has been hauled before the courts again over more sickening offending.

Notorious Marist Brother pedophile Gerard McNamara came back on the police radar after he preyed upon a young student’s vulnerability and sexually abused him while giving him massages in his office. Pictured: Generic

A notorious Marist Brother pedophile who has done several stints behind bars for abusing children will walk free in three weeks despite being convicted for another attack on a child.

Gerard McNamara, 86, preyed on students in the mid-90s while working as a school counsellor at a Catholic school in Gippsland.

He was found guilty by a jury in April of seven charges of indecent act on a child under 16 and appeared for sentencing in the County Court on Thursday.

Judge Kate Hawkins sentenced him to 36 months’ imprisonment with 31 months suspended — with 132 days reckoned as served, McNamara will be eligible for release in just under three weeks.

It’s the third time he’s been jailed and it’s his fourth conviction for sexually abusing boys in schools since the 1970s.

His latest conviction related to him sexually abusing a vulnerable student while giving him massages at a Catholic school in Gippsland.

Marist Brother and pedophile Gerard McNamara has been given another stint behind bars for his offending

The student and his friends were sent to the principal’s office after being caught with cigarettes and the student was told that his father would be informed.

McNamara was tasked with speaking to the student. He told the boy that as a result of his father’s actions, police would have to be called and his dad would get into trouble unless he let him physically examine him for signs of abuse.

After stripping him, he ran his hands over his body, sexually abused him and also took pictures to prove he wasn’t hurt.

McNamara left the boy in his office but returned and sexually abused him again while telling him he was there to support him.

On another occasion when the student told a teacher he couldn’t run in a sport event because of hip pain, McNamara said he could fix the problem with massage and again sexually abused him.

McNamara repeated his offending on another occasion when the boy got into a fight with another student and he took him into his office.

An undeterred Gerard McNamara ignored a warning from a colleague not to massage students in isolation.

Judge Hawkins said the student was succeeding academically and on the sporting field but McNamara’s offending devastated his budding confidence.

“He felt like he was treated like a piece of meat and didn’t feel safe at school.

“While your offending was initially opportunistic, you took advantage of a vulnerable young student and manipulated him into submitting to your touch.

“It is aggravating that you were effectively placed on notice not to massage students in isolation some 10 years earlier by a fellow staff member,” the judge said.

McNamara was sentenced in 2005 and 2016 to suspended terms for sexual assaults against children at a college and sent to jail in 2018 for abusing five students at the same school.

In 2020, he was sentenced to seven months for sexually abusing five boys between 1970 and 1975.