By Adam Cooper
Old, sick and incontinent, paedophile Robert Best will in all probability die in jail, after being ordered to spend at least another decade behind bars for sexually abusing 20 boys at Victorian schools as a Christian Brother.
Best, 76 and in poor health, cannot be released until midway through 2027 at the earliest, after a County Court judge extended his minimum jail term for abusing children over two decades.
Robert Charles Best, among Australia's worst paedophiles, is likely to die in jail.
Best was in 2011 jailed for at least 11 years for abusing 11 boys.
Judge Geoffrey Chettle on Thursday ordered Best serve 16½ years from December 2010 – when he was first taken into custody – before he is eligible for parole, for abusing 31 children between 1968 and 1988 at schools in Ballarat, Box Hill, Moonee Ponds and Geelong.
Robert Best worked at St Alipius school in Ballarat with notorious paedophiles Stephen Farrell, Edward Dowlan, Gerald Fitzgerald and Gerald Ridsdale.Credit: Simon O'Dwyer
The judge acknowledged Best could die in prison given his age and health problems, which include incontinence and epilepsy.
"You caused lifelong misery to many people," Judge Chettle told Best, who sat unmoved during Thursday's hearing.
Best pleaded guilty to 20 charges of indecently assaulting a male and four of assault.
Most of Best's victims were aged between eight and 11, and the offending included preying on boys who were in the sick bay, brazenly abusing some while he sat them on his lap in front of the class, and sexually assaulting one child who was restrained by another Brother, the late Gerald Fitzgerald.
Robert Best and his lawyer arriving at court for an earlier hearing. The Christian Brothers have spent at least $1.5 million defending Best.Credit: Ken Irwin
His legal fees are still being met by the church. Judge Chettle said last month he was stunned to learn the Christian Brothers spent at least $1.5 million defending Best.
The Christian Brothers have not moved to expel him despite what Judge Chettle called "the obvious disgrace" Best had brought the order.
Best worked at Ballarat's St Alipius primary school in the 1960s and 1970s, and taught alongside Stephen Farrell and Edward Dowlan, who are also now in jail. Another of Australia's worst paedophiles, Gerald Ridsdale, was the school's chaplain.
Best also abused children at St Leo's College in Box Hill, St Bernard's in Moonee Ponds and St Joseph's in Geelong.
Outside court, three of Best's victims in Ballarat said the latest sentence brought little comfort, although one of them, Tony Wardley, said he felt empowered by seeing his tormentor in the dock.
"You keep forgetting that you were a seven or eight-year-old and in your mind you're an adult so you have a lot of shame that you didn't fight back, but seeing him is empowering ... to see what a wimp he really is," Mr Wardley said.
The men slammed as "disgusting" the lengths the Catholic Church and the Christian Brothers order had gone to support Best, either by moving him from school when allegations arose or paying his legal costs.
Mr Wardley said on Thursday: "What they've spent on his lawyers' fees, 30 victims wouldn't have got that much total compensation ... they've spent $1.5 million plus defending a paedophile."
Paul Auchettl said no one had been held accountable for relocating Best, and said the church needed to do more to help communities such as Ballarat recover.
"He's destroyed so many people's lives and we've buried people whose families are still struggling to cope," Mr Auchettl said.
"This untreated trauma in children means they've gone home and affected their mothers, their wives, sisters and daughters – they're the people carrying that pain now and we haven't heard their stories yet."
The judge said one of Best's victims correctly described him as "a monster", whose "horrific" offending breached the trust of children he should have been caring for and the boys' parents, and tarnished the church's reputation.
Best's "personal hypocrisy is staggering", Judge Chettle said, and his behaviour "abhorrent and disgusting".
The court heard one of Best's victims in the late 1970s told him to "F--k off, you dirty bastard", which Judge Chettle said was a "colloquially accurate description".
Many victims had been broken by drug and alcohol problems, troubled relationships, sleep and mental-health issues and difficulties holding down jobs, the court heard.
Best also taught at schools in Fremantle, Launceston and in Warrnambool, where he was found guilty at trial in the 1990s, but the convictions were quashed on appeal.