His reputation as an abuser was known throughout Northern New South Wales Catholic schools, but that didn't stop Brother Dominic being appointed to an Ipswich private school. The Guardian & Tribune Weekend reveals the coverup around how a paedophile ended up in charge of St Peter Claver College. 

Over the years Catholic education officials maintained they heard nothing about the paedophile behaviour of headmaster Brother Dominic.

But the evidence should have been deafening - it was being shouted in the playground.

“Bums to the wall, Dom’s on the crawl,” frightened students were known to say when the pudgy bespectacled Marist Brother prowled around the playgrounds of their schools in Northern New South Wales in the 1970s and 1980s.

The chant was just one of the many red flags that the Marist Brothers and Catholic Education appeared to overlook when they elevated Darcy John O’Sullivan also known as Brother Dominic to the role of headmaster of Ipswich school St Peter Claver College in 1991.

By the time the brother was appointed to the well-respected Riverview Catholic school he’d left a trail of devastated students behind him in New South Wales.

With his trademark tactics of lurking in the schools’ sick bays to molest young male students, brutally groping them in his technical drawing classes or raping them in his office, his offending had been relentless.

EVEN WHEN HE WENT on to molest a Grade 9 boy at St Peter Claver in 1996, he was still kept on in the headmaster’s role for months despite the boy’s complaint. 

And when he left the school in 1996 he was still touted for other headmaster’s jobs despite the 1996 incident being reported to authorities in Catholic Education in Queensland and the Marist Brothers.

“It’s unforgivable. They knew he was an abuser and to put him up as principal gave him more of a chance to cover up,’’ says Peter Russ who was one of his former students in New South Wales and knows a number of his victims.

“What hope did a boy have?”

How Br Dominic was appointed to St Peter Claver and avoided major sanction during his career has only recently been able to be told as evidence about his case was suppressed while he faced abuse charges relating to offences at Newcastle and Casino Schools.

But following his jailing and that of other brothers in late 2020 over the charges, the Guardian & Tribune Weekend has obtained the previously suppressed evidence uncovered by the Royal Commission into Child Abuse relating to his long career of offending.

Victim statements, reports and documentation from Marist brothers’ records reveal for the first time the cover up that led to a paedophile being appointed to lead the Ipswich school and then stay on even after he molested one of its students.

This cover up, according to his earliest victims, began in the early 1970s when Brother Dominic worked as a secondary teacher at Marist Brothers Hamilton High School in Newcastle.

So blatant was his abuse during this period that he would roam the playground groping boys by sticking his hands into their pants on the pretence of tucking in their shirts according to former students who were witnesses at the Royal Commission. 

Every boy was warned by the other boys, said Mr Russ who went to Hamilton High School from 1971 to 1976 and was assaulted by another brother at the school.

“You knew that they would touch you up.”

The worst abuse would take place in the special technical drawing classes taught by Brother Dominic where boys were forced to sit on high backless stools, witnesses told the Royal Commission.

The brother would lurk behind his victims one hand in his robes and the other forcibly groping their backsides to the point where some of the students tried to avoid the contact by putting cardboard in their pants - a tactic that just infuriated the brother and led to punishment.

When the boys tried to squirm away or dared to sit in the middle of the classroom they were threatened with the cane, one victim code-named CNP told police in a statement given in 2013.

It was in one of the classes in late 1972, said CNP that Brother Dominic put his hands up CNP’s shorts and groped his genitals.

“I immediately jumped up and told him to “f..k off and leave me alone and ran from the class room,’’ said CNP in a statement given to the Royal Commission.

Furious CNP went straight to the then principal Brother William “Christopher” Wade’s office and complained about what had happened.

But Brother Christopher dismissed the allegations saying that Br Dominic was just “being friendly” and it would have been “an accident”, said CNP.

CNP refused to go to school for three days after the incident and when he did return he found his technical drawing classes had been cancelled and he did not see Brother Dominic again.

CNP in his statement said he still found it hard to have anyone stand behind him or touch his back - something that has had an impact on his life with his wife and family.

Later that same year another student, code-named CNS in the Royal Commission, said he also alerted Br Christopher to the abuse.

He stated he was forced to meet with Br Christopher when he and another boy were caught letting off a firework near the Brothers’ residence in the Christmas holidays in 1972.

During the meeting while Br Christopher chided him for his behaviour, CNS asked the headmaster how he could justify several brothers, including Brother Dominic’s, being allowed to molest of children at the school.

Br Christopher replied that: “They are all good competent teachers”, said CNS who then left and went to another school the following year.

Despite such complaints, Br Dominic remained at the Hamilton school and went on to abuse more victims.

A former student at the school, code-named CNQ by the Royal Commission, in his statement said he had been molested and raped by Br Dominic in the brother’s office in 1977.

CNQ who also saw other boys being abused by Br Dominic said he did not tell anyone about the abuse until 2013 when he saw a news report about child abuse by a paedophile priest.

Despite what appears to have been these serious complaints, current Marist Brothers Provincial Peter Carroll would later tell the Royal Commission that he could find no record of any of the 1970s incidents making it into the brothers’ files. 

And former Hamilton principal Brother Christopher who has since been convicted of abusing children himself and of failing to disclose information to the police, denied any knowledge of being told about Br Dominic’s assaults.

With the complaints of the 1970s brushed off or ignored, Br Dominic’s star continued to rise and he was appointed to the principal’s role at St Mary’s High School in Casino in 1981. 

It was here that his behaviour finally triggered some concerns among the senior teachers and clergy but again it appeared it wasn’t reported up the chain.

Deputy principal at the college, John Hamilton gave a statement to the inquiry saying he had been aware of a number of concerns about Brother Dominic in the 1980s but while he had his own suspicions, he never acted on them.

He recalled speaking to two teachers from Hamilton in 1983 and they asked him if Br Dominic had been “up to his old tricks” at St Mary’s. 

On another occasion a local priest warned him to keep an eye on Brother Dominic saying “you wouldn’t believe what he has been up to”.

Hamilton said he dismissed the allegations because he thought the students at St Mary’s were “tough kids” who did not fit the profile of those a paedophile would target.

In 1985, Hamilton said he caught Brother Dominic in the school’s sick bay sitting over a student and rubbing the boy’s forehead.

“I felt uncomfortable seeing this at the time because I thought male teachers did not act like this with students,’’ he said.

While he claimed the incident made him more suspicious he didn’t think to do anything as he didn’t think the contact was sexual.

“If I’d thought anything was seriously wrong I would have reported it to the Marist Brother’s Provincial.”

Hamilton heard other information about Br Dominic, including the chant that students’ would sing “Bums to the wall, Dom’s on the crawl”, but he dismissed this because he thought students classified Br Dominic’s gentle, compassionate and unmanly nature indicated the brother was homosexual.

In 1984, graffiti was sprayed on the school wall saying “Br Dom is a poof”, Hamilton said.

Br Dominic expelled the boys responsible so they missed their Grade 10 graduation ceremony, he said.

Despite these incidents, Hamilton stated to the Royal Commission that he never once voiced any of these issues to the Marist Brothers hierarchy even when he was asked to recommend Br Dominic to a principal position.

Responding to a query by then Marist Provincial Br Alexis Turton in the 1980s about Dominic’s suitability for another headmaster’s role, Hamilton stated he only had one concern which was that Br Dominic, “would need a strong deputy” as he was “a bit of a wet blanket”.

Hamilton said he never mentioned any concerns about Br Dominic abusing children as he didn’t think the brother had been “actively sexually inappropriate” with students.

The query from Br Turton was likely crucial as later, Br Dominic was appointed to be headmaster of St Peter Claver College.

When Br Dominic arrived at St Peter Claver College at Riverview in 1991, a diocesan school owned and operated by the Brisbane Catholic Education office, it had built up a good reputation among the local community with a culturally diverse mix of students.

Whether Br Dominic’s offending was still as blatant as ever when he first started there is not known probably due to a lack of focus by investigators from the Royal Commission about his time in Queensland.

What definitely did occur however was that in 1994, Catholic Education authorities and the Marist Brothers received an official complaint detailing some of the Brother’s earlier offending in NSW the 1980s.

A victim contacted his parish priest at Casino in late 1994 to say that he had been abused by Br Dominic in his headmaster’s office at Saint Mary’s in the 1970s. 

The parish priest passed the complaint to then Marist Provincial Br Alexis Turton and file notes were made about the situation.

One of the file notes according to the royal commission said the victim had not wanted to take the matter any further if there had been no other complaints about Br Dominic since.

But another note created on August 7, 1995 purportedly prepared by Br Turton said “it was common knowledge” Br O’Sullivan was “over familiar with male students” at the “level of inappropriate touching but no indication of any genitality or such”.

The file note stated that no one had confronted the brother about the matter “although it is fairly common matter for discussion among the staff”.

Br Turton who had worked with Br Dominic in the past would later tell the Royal Commission that around this time he confronted Br Dominic about the allegations but Br Dominic had denied any wrongdoing.

The incident appeared to have failed to have any impact on Br Dominic’s career and he was left on as the headmaster at St Peter Claver College.

Then in July 12, 1996, in something that his early victims had most feared, Br Dominic abused again.

This time a St Peter Claver College student reported being molested by the headmaster. The boy made complaints to both the school and local police.

He nominated several incidents including Br Dominic groping his back under his shirt while he lay ill in the school’s sick bay, making him sit on his knee in his office while holding his waist, commenting about his genitalia and kissing him on the top of head while rubbing his backside.

For what appears to be the first time in his offending career, Br Dominic was officially confronted by several authorities about the molestation. 

A meeting was held that included Br Dominic, a Catholic Education child protection officer and the then Brisbane CEO assistant director, according to minutes of the meeting referenced to the Royal Commission by Br Carroll.

O’Sullivan admitted his behaviour had been “foolish and most inappropriate but was not intended to be sexual” and he agreed to a complete “hands off” approach to all students, stated the minutes.

But extraordinarily, Br Dominic was still not stood down even when there was also a police report made about the complaint. 

Later current Marist Provincial Br Carroll who took over as headmaster at St Peter Claver College in 1997 would state to the Royal Commission that: “with hindsight, it appears both surprising and a matter of concern that no further action was taken in 1996, and that O’Sullivan was not required to stand down”.

At the end of 1996, Br Dominic left St Peter Claver College and was sent to the United States to attend a spiritual renewal program called Wellsprings. 

Br Carroll stated to the Royal Commission that the movement of Br Dominic to the program in the US was not unusual as it was normal for brothers to have a period of “renewal” before taking up a new position.

At the time he was on the renewal break, Br Dominic was being considered for appointment to another school, St Francis Xavier College Hamilton back in Casino in 1997.

The Royal Commission heard a teacher who worked in Catholic Education who had been one of Br Dominic’s early victims learned about the impending appointment and complained to Catholic education.

Br Dominic did not take up the appointment and Br Carroll submitted to the inquiry this could have been because of Br Dominic’s health.

Br Carroll also revealed that there was a move to appoint Br Dominic to Marist Brothers Ashgrove school in Brisbane or St Patricks College Dundas in the late 1990s but he said appointments didn’t go ahead as the principals had reservations.

What these reservations were, was not mentioned. 

Following Br Dominic’s return to Australia he seemed to have kept a low profile and was only given administrative roles but between 2005 and 2010 he was appointed to be the assistant community leader and personal assistant to the headmaster at Marist College Ashgrove.

In 2013, numerous victims of Br Dominic came forward to police in northern New South Wales who were part of a taskforce investigating widespread abuse and coverups involving the brothers and other paedophile clergy in the region.

In July that year Br Dominic appeared in Newcastle Court on the first charges relating to eight victims who attended Marist Brothers Hamilton in Newcastle in the early 1970s. More victims came forward in 2014 and more charges were laid.

In 2016 Br Dominic pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to eight years jail. 

His victims detailed how the abuse had ruined their lives with some suffering drug and alcohol addiction problems, attempting suicide and being shunned by their families. 

Over the years, more victims have come forward from New South Wales and in 2019 Br Dominic was again before the courts and sentenced to more jail time despite him protesting to the judge that he was stressed and fearful after being hit with a loaf of bread and pushed over in the prison.

Brisbane Catholic Education has admitted it did not stand down Br Dominic from his job after a St Peter Claver College student but such procedure was in keeping with the practices of the time.

They said they could not find any records suggesting they knew of complaints relating to Br Dominic's abuse in the 1970s or 1980s and that they had not been made aware of the 1994 complaint noted in the Marist Brothers files.

Brother Peter Carroll referred the paper to his statement to the Royal Commission where he acknowledged the Marist Brothers inadequate, naive uniformed and even callous at times responses to victims of abuse.'

"What happened in the past should not have occurred. Children should not have been abused by those whose trust they willingly placed,'' he told the Royal Commission.

This week he said: “The apology of Marist Brothers to those who experienced abuse is unreserved, enduring and a matter of public record. 

"That a single child could be so harmed and failed when in the care of the Marist Brothers is a matter of profound sorrow,'' he said.

Whether he left a trail of victims at St Peter Claver is hard to know but his former pupil from New South Wales Mr Russ has no doubt.

“There has to be more victims,’’ he said.

• Know more about this story? Send tips and information to Rory Callinan privately and securely on encrypted email – rorycallinan@protonmail.com