Mainland law firm seeking information about Burnie college

A law firm wants to talk to former students and staff as it prepares a case against Burnie’s Marist Regional College on behalf of clients who claim they were abused.

Beyond Abuse spokesman Steve Fisher. Picture: SUPPLIED

A MAINLAND law firm is asking former students, their parents and past employees of Burnie’s Marist Regional College to get in touch as it prepares a legal case against the Catholic Church on behalf of abuse victims.

Porters Lawyers, based in Canberra, has acted on behalf of more than 700 men and women throughout Australia in sexual abuse cases against churches and other organisations.

It recently mounted action to sue dozens of teachers from Marist College in Canberra for alleged sexual abuse against 30 former students.

Now the law firm has turned its attention to Tasmania.

Burnie’s Marist Regional College may soon have a legal case made against it. Picture: SUPPLIED

The law firm ran an advert in newspapers on Saturday saying it would be acting for a number of victims who were sexually or physically abused by various Marist Brothers and lay teachers at the Burnie college.

“These victims were young children at the time of the abuse,” the advert says.

“Porters Lawyers wish to speak to any former brothers, employees, parents or students of Marist Regional College Burnie to obtain further evidence of the crimes of the Marist Brothers and/or staff members between 1964 and 1982 and to assist our clients in their law suits against the trustees of the Marist Brothers.”

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Beyond Abuse spokesman Steve Fisher said he welcomed news there could be a class action against the Tasmanian college and the church.

“We have never got to the bottom of the true extent of abuse at the college,” Mr Fisher said.

“Hopefully this advert and this action will bring more people forward,’ Mr Fisher said.

“It seems there was a time when for some reason the North-West coast of Tasmania was a paedophile haven and it spanned church denominations and charity organisations.

“We ran a hotline looking for statistics of those abused in Tasmania. We got 150 calls in a week and over 45 per cent were from the North-West.”

Marist Regional College, Burnie, has been in the headlines over several decades as the crimes of those associated with it were exposed.

Marist Brother Greg Ferguson was convicted of historical child sex offences against two students in 2007 relating to his time at the college in the early 1970s.

Four other staff associated with the college have been sent to prison on child sex offences including Steve Randell and Paul Goldsmith.

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