St Pats deputy principal Richard Brodrick received full pay during investigation

Suspended St Patrick’s College Ballarat deputy principal Richard Rodrick has received full pay after he was stood down for his alleged mishandling of a child sexual abuse accusation.

St Patrick’s College, Ballarat deputy principal Richard Brodrick has been suspended with full pay

A school leader from Ballarat has spent six months suspended on full pay, receiving up to $85,000 while being investigated over his handling of a child sexual abuse allegation.

Last year it was alleged St Patrick’s College Ballarat deputy principal Richard Brodrick failed to properly follow up an allegation of sexual assault by one boy against another.

Deputy Principal Richard Brodrick was stood down from St Patrick’s College Ballarat.

The matter was probed by the Commissioner for Children and Young People, but a spokesman said he was unable to confirm the ongoing status of the investigation due to legislative restrictions.

Mr Brodrick, who previously worked at Catholic Regional College in Caroline Springs, has not been suspended by the Victorian Institute of Teaching but has not been at work since the end of term two last year.

He earns up to $170,000 a year at the Catholic school and is also understood to be seeking a six-figure payout from the school’s governing body, Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA).

He had only been at St Patrick’s College for 18 months when he was suspended.

Unrest is continuing at the alma mater of controversial Catholic figure George Pell under the leadership of principal Steven O’Connor.

Sources say senior staff are being overlooked for promotion in favour of junior staff “loyalists” recruited by Mr O’Connor, who came to the school in 2021.

Mr O’Connor has also been accused of striving to “turn St Pat’s into Ballarat Clarendon College”.

Richard Brodrick, suspended deputy principal has received up to $85,000 while being investigated. Picture: supplied

St Patrick’s College is also offering generous fee discounts offered to students from the waiting list who opted for Damascus College instead.

The school, which has dropped 100 students in the last five years, is also losing staff and students to the new EREA technical school in the area, St Joseph’s College.

Many of the 50+ staff who left the school in 2022 were female, with inside sources claiming a “toxic workplace culture” and stagnant VCE results were to blame.

A spokesman for EREA said the “ investigation process and subsequent follow up into Mr Brodrick continues”.

“Mr Brodrick remains stood down and employed by EREA Victorian Schols Ltd and the College on full pay. He remains a registered teacher, in line with procedural fairness.

“Edmund Rice Education Australia Victorian Schools Ltd, the governing body of the College, takes all allegations or concerns seriously and is fully committed to ensuring that strict official investigative processes are followed at all times.’’

In the aftermath of the Herald Sun’s reporting about Mr Brodrick being stood down, Mr O’Connor admitted: “we don’t get it right”.

“That’s what a school is, it’s about learning, sometimes that is learning from mistakes”.