Former Christian Brother Stephen Farrell jailed over indecent assault of students
WHEN Stephen Farrell was 22, he asked a student at a Ballarat primary school to put on sports gear before assaulting him. Today, 44 years later, he was sent to prison.
A FORMER Christian Brother will spend four months in jail for indecently assaulting two of his young students in regional Victoria during the 1970s. Stephen Farrell, 22 at the time, used his position as a teacher at Ballarat’s St Alipius Primary School to assault the pupils, who were aged 10 in 1974. Magistrate Belinda Wallington said Farrell, now 66, assaulted one of the boys on three occasions, fondling the child inside his trousers.
He fondled the other boy’s genitals after requesting the child change into his sports gear.
“Because of your position as a Christian Brother, when that child told an adult, he was not believed,” Ms Wallington said.
“What we now know is the devastating effect of child sex abuse and how it is compounded by breach of trust.” Farrell pleaded guilty earlier in February to two charges of indecent assault. He has already received two suspended jail sentences for similar offences against three other victims.
On Thursday in Melbourne Magistrates Court, he was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, with a 14-month suspended term.
More to come.