Legal push ‘moral insult to survivors’

Adelaide’s ‘masked brothers’ have accused the Catholic Church of re-victimising survivors of abuse over the George Pell case.

Brothers A and B leave court following the sentencing of child sex offender Vivian Frederick Deboo last December. Picture: Dean Martin

Adelaide’s “masked brothers” — the two men who famously tormented their disgraced clergyman abuser by pursuing him outside court wearing creepy faceless masks — have accused the ­Catholic Church of re-victimising survivors of abuse by treating the George Pell case not as a moral challenge but a legal one.

The brothers — who for legal reasons can be known only as A and B — came to be regarded as heroes across South Australia last year after their campaign against Vivian Frederick Deboo, a Christian lay preacher and youth camp caterer who assaulted both men when they were teens on a church camp in the 1990s.

Deboo, 74, pleaded guilty to abusing the brothers and is serving six years’ jail, having previously served a two-year sentence in 1996 for similar offending against three other young boys.

Flanked by dozens of ­supporters, A and B repeatedly ­followed Deboo on his many court ­appearances last year, their faces covered with masks and holding placards that denounced the ­offender.

They even used humour to deride Deboo, on one occasion dressing in a full-body Cookie Monster costume to create what they called a “monster’s crossing” as a terrified Deboo waited to cross the road outside court.

Brother B — a successful professional who is happily married with children — spoke to The Australian yesterday about the impact the Pell case had on people such as him and his brother.

He said his great frustration throughout his own trial was that people who had been abused were denied a voice, hence the decision he and his brother took to make Deboo look “weak and powerless” by tormenting and ridiculing him the way he did.

B said he felt that Pell and the church had been “more interested in winning a court case” than doing the right thing by victims of abuse, both in the lead-up to Pell’s appeal, and with the prospect of a High Court appeal now being the latest option to have the conviction overturned.

“I was furious when the Catholic Church didn’t come out and unreservedly apologise when one of its top dogs was found guilty of child sexual abuse,” B said.

“Instead, it was all about his right to appeal.

“Given what we now know, I think the Catholic Church now needs to come out very strongly to denounce Pell and admit that he is a convicted crim­inal in both the eyes of God and the law.”