By Liam Mannix and Beau Donnelly
A Victorian judge said evidence the Catholic Church continues to fund the legal defence of one of Australia's worst paedophiles, Robert Charles Best, "just blows me away".
On Monday Best, 76, pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria to sexually abusing 20 young victims between 1968 and 1988 at schools in Ballarat, Box Hill, Geelong and Moonee Ponds.
Robert Charles Best, among Australia's worst paedophiles, continues to have his legal defence funded by the Catholic Church.
County Court Judge Geoffrey Chettle admitted he was struggling to contain his emotion at the gravity and extent of Best's abuse.
"It's hard not to get angry, and I'm trying," he said.
The Christian Brothers had spent more than $1.5 million in legal fees on Best, whose victims number in the dozens, according to evidence the order gave to the child abuse royal commission in 2015.
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
Some of Best's victims have since taken their own lives.
"I've got to say that just blows me away, on a plea," County Court Judge Geoffrey Chettle said when told the Church continued to fund Best's defence.
"It's ongoing, regular abuse of children over 20 years, from a man who purports to be their pastoral carer".
In 2011 the Christian Brother was jailed of a non-parole period of 11 years for abusing 11 other children under his care.
Robert Best maintained his innocence through four previous trials.
Best maintained his innocence through four trials, meaning his victims had to give evidence. He lost every one of those trials before he entered a guilty plea.
With his previous guilty pleas to 24 charges in 2011 added to the crimes he admitted to on Monday, Best ranks with his former colleague Gerald Ridsdale as among Australia's worst paedophiles.
Best was also found guilty of child sex abuse in trials during the 1990s, but was later released on appeal.
In 2015, the Christian Brothers said they would welcome the paedophile back into their ranks upon his release from prison.
Best taught at several Catholic schools including Ballarat's St Alipius primary school in 1971.
Ridsdale, the country's most notorious paedophile priest, was the school's chaplain, while paedophiles Stephen Farrell, Edward Dowlan and Gerald Fitzgerald filled the teaching ranks.
Most of Brother Best's victims were schoolboys aged between eight and 11 who he abused while working as a teacher at St Alipius as well as St Leo's College in Box Hill, St Bernard's in Moonee Ponds and St Joseph's College, Geelong.
Many of the assaults occurred in Best's office, where he took victims for punishment, prosecutor Peter Rose QC told the court.
Others occurred in the school sick bay under the pretext of checking their wellbeing.
One young man was abused while singing during choir practice. Another when he was reading out loud in front of class.
Yet another had his hands bound with rope to a metal grate by Fitzgerald while Best assaulted him.
When his victims started to cry, Best whispered that it would "all be OK" as he continued to assault them.
Several of those he abused braved the witness box to tell of the harm he had done to their lives.
"As a seven or eight year old, the fear I had was enormous. I would go to school not knowing the next time I would be attacked.
"The fear and anxiety was unbearable. He is truly a monster," one of Best's victims said.
Many of Best's other victims have since killed themselves, several victims told the court.
Fairfax Media last year revealed that Best was a resident at the Christian Brothers headquarters in Parkville from the mid-1990s.
He is understood to have moved into the property – which also houses other paedophile brothers despite being hired out as a wedding and conference centre – after his first conviction in 1996.
Earlier this month, the royal commission hearing in Sydney was told that 22 per cent of the Christian Brothers order were paedophiles.
The brothers were among almost 2000 church figures who abused children.
The Christian Brothers Oceania Province said in a statement it hoped those abused by Brother Best would "find some peace and justice in today's outcome".
The Brothers offered an unreserved apology, but declined to answer specific questions about the funding of Best's defence.
Best will be sentenced on March 2.
With Adam Cooper