By Mark Russell
A former Christian Brother who was part of a notorious paedophile ring involving the clergy in Ballarat has been jailed for a minimum of three years for abusing 20 young boys.
County Court judge Richard Smith said on Friday that Ted Dowlan, who changed his name by deed poll to Bales in 2011, had preyed on vulnerable boys as young as eight years old over a 14-year period at six different schools from the first year he became a Christian Brother in 1971.
Edward Dowlan in 1994.Credit: G. Ampt
Judge Smith said Dowlan had been in a position of authority and trust and believed he had "some right of entitlement" to abuse the boys in appalling circumstances because he had power over them and they were unable to resist him.
The judge described Dowlan's offending as brazen and said he did not believe he was remorseful.
Dowlan's victims had suffered an ongoing psychological reaction to the abuse that was still affecting them 30 to 40 years later.
Judge Smith said Dowlan was renowned as a strict disciplinarian who committed many of his offences at the back of the classroom under the guise of disciplining a student after telling the other boys not to turn around.
He said Dowlan was under no illusion that what he was doing was a serious breach of the law and would have a devastating impact on his victims.
The judge hoped jailing Dowlan for six years with a non-parole period of three years, and placing him on the sex offenders register for life, would help his victims get on with their lives.
Dowlan pleaded guilty to 33 counts of indecently assaulting boys under the age of 16 and one count of gross indecency between 1971 and 1986.
One victim claimed George Pell, the former Archbishop of Sydney, ignored his pleas to stop the abuse.
The victim said he was at a Ballarat swimming pool in 1973 when he told Dr Pell, who is now head of the Vatican's finances, something had to be done to stop Dowlan abusing young boys at St Patrick's College. Dr Pell allegedly replied: "Don't be ridiculous."
Dr Pell has consistently denied knowing children were being abused in Ballarat during the time he was there.
Dowlan was teaching at Ballarat's St Alipius primary school in 1971 with other paedophile brothers including Robert Best, Stephen Farrell and Gerald Fitzgerald. Gerald Ridsdale, Australia's most notorious paedophile priest, was the school's chaplain.
Dowlan admitted abusing boys at St Alipius in 1971; St Thomas More College in Forest Hills (1972); St Patrick's College in Ballarat (1973-74); Warrnambool Christian Brothers College (1975-76); Chanel College, Geelong (1980); and Cathedral College, East Melbourne (1982-1988).
Dowlan justified his behaviour to one victim by saying "everybody sins".
He whispered to another victim that he would fail in life because God would punish him for the acts they were committing.
The Crown claimed the Christian Brothers were aware of what Dowlan was doing and failed to act to stop him, instead moving him from school to school, which only "aggravated the problem".
Dowlan was eventually jailed in 1996 for six-and-a-half years with a four-year minimum for abusing 11 boys between 1971 and 1982. He was not thrown out of the Christian Brothers order until 2008.
Dowlan was arrested in 2014 by the Sano taskforce, set up to investigate claims arising from the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse, after more victims came forward.
Dowlan's colleague Ridsdale, who admitted abusing at least 53 children between 1961 to 1982, was jailed for an extra eight years in 2014 after new victims came forward.
When Ridsdale appeared for the first time in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in May 1993 to face sexual abuse charges, Cardinal Pell was by his side for support.
Ridsdale had shared a house with Dr Pell for about a year from early 1973 at Ballarat's St Alipius Presbytery, next door to the primary school.
Dr Pell, then an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, claimed he had no idea what Ridsdale had been doing.