English: Brother Edward P. English

Brother Edward English

Edward Patrick English

Brother with the Christian Brothers.  Taught at St. Bonaventure College in St. John’s and worked at Mount Cashel Orphanage.   Cover-up in 1975 related to allegations against Brother English and another Christian Brother.  Recycled to teaching at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby BC. 1991 CONVICTED for offences perpetrated on young boys at Mount Cashel.   Sentenced to 10 years in prison. 2007 lawsuit field alleging sex abuse at St. Thomas More Collegiate and also at  St. Michael’s School in Burnaby where Brother English taught religion to the altar boys.

The above pictures are from Brother Edward English’ time at St. Thomas More College.  (Click pictures to enlarge)

THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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20 July 1994:  R v English Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal

18 December 1975:   Homosexual acts and child abuse at Mount Cashel Orphanage (Charges were not laid!)

Excerpt re Brother English from Lead us not into temptation:  Catholic priests and the sexual abuse of children (Jason Berry,  First Illinois paperback edition, 2000, p. 302.  Originally published New York, Doubleday, c 1992)

Nine Christian Brothers, two of whom were lovers., sodomized, whipped, punched, fondled, and degraded at least 30MountCashelboys for more than twenty years.  Testimony pointed to a ring of overlapping pedophiles and sadomasochistice homosexuals, including five men, living in the town, who had grown up in the orphanage and returtned to molest boys.

The  Mount  Cashel  superintendent, Brother Douglas Kenny, came from a prominent local family.  Years later, a victim testified that he has stormed into Kenny’s office and accused Brother Edward English, in his presence, of being a pervert.”  As Kenny ordered them out of his office, English said:  “If I go down, you go with me.  You’re gay too, Doug.”  Kenny replied: “Shut up, shut up.”

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The following information is drawn from Canadian Catholic Directories (C) which I have on hand, The Adelphian yearbook from St. Bonaventure College (A), media (M), personal information (P) and legal documents (L)

2007:  lawsuit alleging sex abuse by Brother English in two schools in Burnaby, BC (M)

 1998:  living near Dieppe’s cole Amirault, in New Bruswick.  Parents complained – within hours English was obliged to leave (M)

July 1994:  sentence reduced to 10 years by Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal (L)

August 1991:  Sentenced to 13 years in prison (L)

June 1991:  facing 20 charges – 13 of indecent assault, five of gross indecency and two of assault causing bodily harm y 13 victims.  The offences occurred at Mount Cashel between 1971 and 1976 (M)

December 1990:  Not guilty plea to charges related to sex abuse of boys at Mount Cashel (M)

July 1989:  both Brothers English and Ralph were living in Mono Mills, Ontario when charges were laid (M) (Mono Mills is located between Orangeville and Tottenham, Ontario, 33 miles NW of Toronto)

early 80s to mid 80s (exact years unknown):  teaching at Vancouver College in Vancouver, British Columbia (P)

1981:  Teaching at St. Thomas More Collegiate (P) According to yearbook:

“Br. English is homeroom teacher of 8-15.  He teaches Math 8, French 8, 9 and 10 and Religion 8.  He was involved in organizing the Vanity Chancellor Tournament and the awards banquet.”

1977-1980:  teaching  Grade 8 class at St. Thomas More Collegiate and religious education to altar boys at  St. Michael’s school in Burnaby, B.C (M)

allegations of sex abuse and lawsuit relate to these years in Burnaby, BC (M)

taught Religious Ed. to the altar boys at St. Michael’s School in Burnaby(M)

1975:  An investigation started  by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was called to a halt, this despite allegations against five members of the Christian Brothers by 20 residents of Mount Cashel.  Brothers English and Ralph admitted their guilt. A deal was struck by the head of the Christian Brothers, Gabriel McHugh, Brother Dermott Nash and the Deputy Minister of Justice, Vincent McCarthy, that no charges would be laid and Brothers English and Ralph were to be moved out of Newfoundland.  McHugh claimed it was McCarthy’s idea to move the pair.  No charges were laid.   The pair were sent off for treatment, English to the House of Affirmation in  Massachusetts, and Ralph to a treatment program in Southdown, Ontario  Within a year Ralph and English were back on the job elsewhere. (M) Within months apparently another three brothers were moved out of the province.

1972-76:  molesting boys at Mount Cashel (M)

1973-75:  supervisor at Mount Cashel Orphanage, St. John’s Newfoundland (M)

1960-?:  Vice Principal at a new school in Montreal Quebec operated by the Christian Brothers. (A) (I think it is probably St. Pius X which opened around 1959?)

1954-1959:  teaching at St. Bonaventure College, St. John’s Newfoundland.  According to the 1960 Adelphian there had been several changes of staff in the past year:  “From the High School we lost Br. English who, after many years as our bursar and teacher of languages, was transferred to Montreal as vice-principal of a school the Brothers are opening there.” (probably Pius X?)

15 August 1948:  DOB

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Christian Brother Faces New Abuse Claim

Victoria Man Says He Was Molested by a Teacher Later Convicted in Mount Cashel Scandal

Toronto Globe and Mail

01 October 2007

By Jill Mahoney

A British Columbia man has filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually and physically abused by a Christian Brother who was convicted of assaulting young boys at the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland.

The suit alleges that the man was molested at two Catholic schools in Burnaby, B.C., between 1978 and the early 1980s – after the Mount Cashel abuses took place and before they received public attention.

The statement of claim, which was filed in the B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, names Christian Brother Edward English, the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver.

According to the document, which contains allegations that have not been proven in court, the plaintiff was fondled, masturbated and beaten on the bare buttocks with a leather belt.

“The Church or the Brothers or both of them knew or ought to have known that English was a sexual predator and had a history of abusing children,” the statement of claim says.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese said he was not aware of the lawsuit and could not comment. Mr. English’s whereabouts are unknown.

In 1991, Mr. English was sentenced to 12 years in jail on 13 charges of indecent assault, gross indecency and assault causing bodily harm for abusing boys between the ages of eight and 14 at Mount Cashel, where he was a supervisor between 1973 and 1975. An additional year was later added to his sentence for convictions on two other related charges.

In late 1975, a Newfoundland deputy minister of justice ordered Mr. English and another Christian Brother also accused of sexual abuse to leave the province.

No criminal charges were laid at the time. The two men were transferred to Ontario and Massachusetts and received counselling and therapy.

The case was reopened in the late 1980s and several Christian Brothers were charged with abusing boys at Mount Cashel.

During the time of the alleged B.C. assaults, Mr. English taught Sunday school at St. Michael’s School in Burnaby and was a teacher at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, according to the court document.

In September 1978, the plaintiff began Grade 7 at St. Michael’s, where Mr. English provided religious education to the altar boys. During that time, the suit alleges, the plaintiff was repeatedly sexually and physically abused by Mr. English.

The lawsuit says that in September 1980, the plaintiff entered Grade 8 at St. Thomas More Collegiate, where Mr. English was his homeroom teacher.

The boy was also repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted during that year, the statement of claim alleges. The suit also says that he reported the sexual abuse to three other Christian Brothers, but that none acted on the allegations.

According to the court document, the plaintiff, who is now 40 and lives in Victoria, has attempted suicide, has trouble getting and keeping jobs, suffers alcohol and drug addictions, is depressed, cannot enter a school or church, and has post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Facing the danger in our midst

New Brunswick Telegraph Journal

The medieval tradition of tar-and-feathering a person who has committed a crime against society is still with us.

When a Parents’ Advisory Committee in Dieppe discovered they had a convicted pedophile in their community who lived within spitting distance of a local school they acted swiftly. They complained to Corrections Canada and he immediately agreed to move out of the community.

Edward English’s name was synonymous with terror during his tenure at Newfoundland’s infamous Mount Cashel Orphanage. In 1991, he was convicted of 13 separate counts of sexual-assault and gross indecency. He served five and a half years for his crimes, actively participated in treatment programs for sex- offenders, spent approximately six-months on day parole at a halfway house, and was finally released on full parole with a “minimum risk” assesment.

According to the Moncton Parole Board, Mr. English just wants to live his life in quiet, without the shadow of his previous crimes rising like some unforgiving doppleganger before him. He wants a little peace.

Citizens of Dieppe, like citizens everywhere, want peace too. They want the peace of mind that comes with knowing a many-times-convicted pedophile is not lurking nearby, perhaps struggling with the urge to reoffend.

There are no easy answers to the question of how to deal with pedophiles. Thousands of papers have been written on the nature of the pedophile. Criminologists, sociologists, psychologists and countless others have devoted years to documenting the rates of recidivism among convicted pedophiles.

The data and findings continually vacillate. Some studies show that treated pedophiles are at a far lesser risk to reoffend, others insist treatment makes no recognizable difference. Still other studies suggest that a therapeutic, community-based reintegration period helps pedophiles readjust to the world outside of prison. But very few of these programs exist in Canada’s cash- strapped justice system.

Unfortunately, the only factor that remains constant is the number of pedophiles, treated and untreated, who will reoffend over the next 30 years.

In 1997, the Solicitor General’s Office released a report on predictors of sex- offence recidivism. The data reviewed a total of 28,972 sexual offenders and found an average recidivism rate of 13.4 per cent within four to five years of release. This was the low estimate. The study also found that pedophiles attracted to boys reoffended at a higher rate of 21 per cent.

In a long-term follow-up study of child-molesters, which used a test group of 197 convicted pedophiles, some of who were studied for 30 years, the recidivism and reconviction rate hit 50 per cent. Twenty-three per cent of those convicted reoffended more than 10 years after their release.

These numbers represent a nightmare for parents who are faced with a known sex offender in their community. And parents are not unreasonable in fearing that a pedophilic “time-bomb” might go off. But we have to ask, if a small community like Dieppe can’t deal with presence of a known offender in their midst, how will they ever manage to deal with the unknown? The Mount Cashel tragedy could have been prevented. Those in authority disgracefully stuck their heads in the sand and refused to face the reality of the crimes being committed under their noses.

In a crude analogy, pedophilia can be compared to the dirt one sweeps under the rug. Just as dirt is absorbed into a carpet making the whole pile a dusty mess, a community that cannot face and accept the threat pedophilia poses, sullies society at large. Ultimately, when we force an offender to leave the community that knows him, we send our problems into new, vulnerable territories.

Today, we don’t know where Edward English is living.

The fact of the matter is this: There are children everywhere, and the “not in my backyard” philosophy of life serves no-one when it comes to dealing with sex- offenders. Society has an ugly choice to make. Either accept and deal as a community with the danger we know, or force it to walk disguised among us.

It is an issue of education, awareness and community responsibility, and it’s time we, as average citizens realized we all owe a debt of responsibility to the continued health and safely of our communities. We must help ourselves. Nobody else can.

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Church continues to pay pedophile

New Brunswick Telegraph Journal

17 June 1998

A convicted pedophile is still on the Roman Catholic Church’s payroll, according to his parole records.

In 1991, Edward English, a member of the Christian Brothers of Canada, was convicted of nine counts of indecent assault, two counts of gross indecency and two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm involving 11 boys. He was one of several Christian Brothers convicted in the infamous Mount Cashel Orphanage scandal in Newfoundland.

Mr. English was recently discovered to be living near Dieppe’s cole Amirault. The school’s parent advisory committee discovered that Mr. English was living in their neighbourhood, contacted Correctional Services and within hours of voicing their concerns had secured an agreement to move the convicted pedophile out of the area.

On Mr. English’s release form, the parole board writes: “[Your parole officer] considers your risk to the community to be low… You continue to receive ongoing emotional and financial support from the Christian Brothers. Aside from your inability to obtain employment, you appear to have gained optimum benefit from this period of residencey.

Mr. English was one of the central figures in the Mount Cashel case.

He was one of two brothers who were secretly spirited out of Newfoundland in the mid-1970s after police began investigating serious allegations of abuse at the orphanage. No criminal charges were laid after senior officials of the order held meetings with top law enforcement officials in Newfoundland. The case was reopened in the mid- 1980s after justice officials discovered a long buried police report that contained allegations against Mr. English and others.

Though it may surprise some that Mr. English still receives financial support from the Christian Brothers, it doesn’t surprise Dereck O’Brien, who lived at Mount Cashel from 1973 until 1976. Mr. O’Brien’s younger brother was sexually abused by Mr. English during his time at Mount Cashel.

“It’s heartbreaking that this fellow’s still being paid by the Catholic Church, ” said Mr. O’Brien from his home in St. John’s. “My kid brother was a victim of his, so it cuts a little deeper.

Mr. O’Brien says he’s not shocked by the Christian Brothers’ continued financial support of Mr. English. After all, he says, they paid for his legal defence and his therapy before and after the trials.

What upsets him most, says Mr. O’Brien, “is that the Catholic Church as a whole would support him.

“It bothers me,” he says. “It sticks in my throat and it bothers me that so many lives were destroyed.

John Harris, a Newfoundland lawyer who served as attorney for several of the Mount Cashel victims, looks at it another way.

“He may have made permanent vows,” Mr. Harris says. “And in that case, the brothers may still have a duty to support him financially.

“The Brothers sort of run like a Christian commune,” Mr. Harris says. “The salary Mr. English would have made as a teacher went to the Christian Brothers and so they may still bear a financial responsibility to him – just as retired priests still receive financial support.

Mr. Harris says that supporting Mr. English may also simply be a sign of Christian charity – an attempt to forgive and forget – but he stresses that he would be loath to suggest that any financial stipend indicates that the Christian Brothers condone Mr. English’s crimes.

“I think it has more to do with still being part of the Order, and the extant membership of the brothers and Christian faith,” he said.

“If he still is a member of the order, you might wonder, what do you have to do to get kicked out?” “Nothing’s been stripped from them,” Mr. O’Brien says. “I believe he’s still a member of the Order and he’s a certified teacher. Brother [Edward] French is living in Vancouver and Brother [Allan] Ralph too.” (Mr. French and Mr. Ralph were also central players in the scandal.) “But that Brother English, he was a charmer,” Mr. O’Brien says with disgust.

“Did you ever watch M*A*S*H? He looked just like Radar… we used to call him Radar.

Mr. Harris has fought long complex battles with both the Christian Brothers and the Newfoundland government over compensation for the victims and believes “the same degree of compassion and concern for the victims should have been forthcoming.

Nobody from the Catholic Bishopric of Canada, nor from any local diocese would comment on Mr. English’s continued stipend.

Spokesmen for the Christian Brothers of Canada were travelling and could not be reached for comment.

Today, the Mount Cashel scandal is still before the courts. Another Christian Brother, 70-year-old Gerard Kevin Barry, is before the Newfoundland Supreme Court facing allegations of abuse between 1954 and 1959.

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Christian Brother sentenced to 12 years; `You are a disgrace to the order and to humanity,’ judge says

The Montreal Gazette

06 August 1991

Beth Gorham

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. – Christian Brother Edward English was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday on 13 charges of sexually and physically abusing boys at Mount Cashel orphanage.

“You are a disgrace to the order and to humanity,” Judge Gerald Lang said as he handed down the stiffest sentence yet in the wide- ranging sex scandal.

“Society must be disgusted and sick to hear what you did to these poor vulnerable little innocents. Why you didn’t plead guilty is beyond me.

“(You) have showed no remorse whatsoever but just an arrogant demeanor, as if (to say), `So what, these are expendables’.”

English, 42, a short, heavy-set man, sat expressionless as Lang recounted trial evidence from 11 victims who said they were repeatedly fondled and subjected to sadistic beatings in the mid- 1970s.

A jury convicted English last month on nine counts of indecent assault and two each of gross indecency and assault causing bodily harm.

He originally faced 19 charges but was acquitted of three counts. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on another three charges and English still faces retrial on those in September.

He will be eligible to apply for day parole after serving two years in prison and can apply for full parole after serving four years. Release on parole is mandatory after he has served eight years.

English is the fourth man to be sentenced for abusing boys at the St. John’s orphanage, which was closed last summer by the Roman Catholic lay order.

The three others were handed prison terms ranging from 25 months to six years. Another man, Edward French, is to be sentenced today on three charges of indecent assault.

In all, eight present or former Christian Brothers and one neighbor of the ophanage have been charged with sex crimes since 1989, when police launched a new investigation into a 14-year-old scandal.

Complaints against English and others were first lodged in 1975. But a police investigation was quashed just days after it began and no charges were laid.

English was sent to the United States for counselling in 1976 before resuming teaching duties for the brothers in Vancouver that year.

“Not only have you ruined lives and abused your child victims, you have brought down the good that the good brothers did,” said Lang.

“And if the brothers are paying for your defence knowing that you are guilty, (it) defies Christian humanity and logic.”

During the trial in Newfoundland Supreme Court, victims recounted how English fondled them at night while they lay in their bunks or masturbated himself by thrusting his penis between their legs.

One victim, who was 10 years old when English began to fondle him, tried to commit suicide a year later.

Calling English a “sadist who does not deserve to be called a Christian,” Lang said the case was the most horrendous he has encountered in 11 years on the bench.

“These boys came to Mount Cashel because they were already disadvantaged. Here there was total control of vulnerable little children who had no place to go or run to,” said Lang.

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Tough judgment

The Vancouver Sun

07 August 1991

THE CHURCH preaches forgiveness – a concept we embrace enthusiastically. But an integral component of the forgiveness doctrine is repentance: confession in the Roman Catholic church. By such doctrine Christian Brother Edward English of the Mount Cashel Orphanage does not deserve to be forgiven. If anything, the 12-year sentence he faces for sexually and physically abusing his young charges is entirely appropriate.

The sentence given to Mr. English, who also taught at the St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, is the stiffest yet in the Mount Cashel scandal. Stiffer still was the condemnation he received at the hands of Mr. Justice Gerald Lang, who said, rightly: “Society must be disgusted and sick to hear what you did to these poor vulnerable little innocents. Why you didn’t plead guilty is beyond me.”

Why, indeed? Having taken advantage of a position of trust and having caused incredible suffering as a result, Mr. English has stubbornly refused to repent. Of course, only his confessor knows whether he has sought forgiveness within the confines of his church. But his apparent lack of remorse and the selfishness he showed in forcing his victims to relive his indecencies on the witness stand left room for only the harshest judgment in the secular court.

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12-year term in Cashel case

The Windsor Star

06 August 1991

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – Christian Brother Edward English was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison on 13 charges of sexually and physically abusing boys at Mount Cashel orphanage.

“You are a disgrace to the order and to humanity,” Justice Gerald Lang said as he handed down the stiffest sentence yet in the sex scandal.

English, 42, sat expressionless as Lang recounted trial evidence from 11 victims who said they were repeatedly fondled and subjected to sadistic beatings in the mid-1970s.

A jury convicted English last month on nine counts of indecent assault and two each of gross indecency and assault causing bodily harm.

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Communion wafer, assault linked in trial

The Vancouver Sun

26 June 1991

ST. JOHN’S – A former resident of the Mount Cashel orphanage testified Tuesday that Christian Brother Edward English sexually assaulted him in the 1970s after giving him a communion wafer.

The complainant, now 29, told Newfoundland Supreme Court that English went to a St. John’s church to pick up communion wafers and asked him to come along for a ride.

English, now 43, sexually assaulted him in the church parking lot, he said.

“He opened the communion dish and gave me a wafer,” said the complainant.

The complainant testified that English then sexually assaulted him.

The complainant also said he was fondled at bedtime by English while being tucked in for the night, and was assaulted in the hallway one day when talking to some of his friends.

Under cross-examination, the witness admitted he suffered blackouts and memory problems as a result of drug use. He also has a criminal record, he said.

A second witness testified he was sexually assaulted on numerous occassions by English.

The complainant, now 30, said English had taken him for a ride while he delivered some pictures, and they ended up in a cabin.

“He made me take off my clothes and get on the bed,” said the witness. “He got on top of me and started to masturbate. . . . He said it would put hair on my chest.”

Defence lawyer David Orr asked the man about other allegations of sexual assault he made since leaving Mount Cashel. The claims were against a police officer, another Christian Brother and a member of the media.

There there were no convictions, said Orr.

“That doesn’t mean it never happened,” replied the man.

The complainant admitted to having a drug problem while at the orphanage and to being investigated for an indecent assault against another boy in the 1970s.

English is facing 13 counts of indecent assault, five of gross indecency and two of assault causing bodily harm.

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Mt. Cashel resident says thumb was broken

The Vancouver Sun

21 June 1991

ST. JOHN’S – A former resident of the Mount Cashel orphanage testified Thursday that his thumb was once broken by Christian Brother Edward English because he didn’t put a winter sliding carpet where it was usually kept.

The man, who lived at the orphanage as a boy, said English knocked him down with a punch when he found the carpet in a locker instead of under his bed.

“He said it belongs under my bunk,” said the man, now 30. “When I told him I had permission to put it there, he got mad, rolled up his sleeves and started swinging.

“He yelled that he was the one in charge of the dormitory.”

The witness said he had a sprained thumb at the time and was wearing a splint.

English knocked him down, he said, and stepped on the splint, breaking his thumb.

English, 43, of St. John’s, is being tried by a Newfoundland Supreme Court jury on 13 counts of indecent assault, five counts of gross indecency and two charges of assault causing bodily harm.

The witness described another incident in which he said English asked him if he wanted help getting dressed.

“I said: ‘I don’t need any help from you, queer,’ ” said the complainant, who added the two then started throwing punches as startled boys watched.

“He hit me numerous times and I made two swings at him,” said the man, who was not identified. “I was kicked too and had bruises on my chest and arms, and on my legs.”

English is one of eight brothers or former brothers charged with sexually and physically abusing boys at the St. John’s orphanage in the 1970s.

Another witness described how English gave him the strap when he was 12 because he called another boy a name.

“It was the hardest strapping I ever got,” said the man. “When I couldn’t take it on my hands no more, I fell down and he strapped me all over my back.”

English taught at Catholic-run St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby after the incidents alleged to have occurred in 1976 at Mt. Cashel.

The trial of a second Christian Brother, 42-year-old Joseph Burke of Vancouver, heard final arguments Thursday.

Burke is charged with seven counts of sexual assault and one of physical assault during the 1970s.

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Brother fondled boy in bed, court told

The Toronto Star

19 June 1991

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – A former resident of the Mount Cashel orphanage testified yesterday he was repeatedly fondled by Christian Brother Edward English during the 1970s.

“He would come around the bunks at night to tuck us in and he spent some time there,” said the 27-year-old man, who was 12 at the time of the alleged assaults.

“He put his hand under my pants and fondled me, played with my privates and he rubbed my backside.”

English is charged with 13 counts of indecent assault, five counts of gross indecency and two charges of assault causing bodily harm against boys at Mount Cashel.

The complainant said the brothers forbid the boys to wear underwear under their pyjamas. The fondling would last five or 10 minutes and English would then move to the next bunk.

Crown prosecutor Kathleen Healey asked the man, who cannot be identified, why he did not say anything to English when he began to sexually abuse him.

“I was scared,” the witness replied. “The brothers could hit you at times.”

The man said English would dry him with a towel after nightly showers, spending extra time on his genitals.

Defence lawyer David Orr said the complainant never reported the bedtime incidents during two police investigations. Only the shower- room incidents were mentioned, he said.

Under further questioning by Healey, the complainant said he did not remember the bedtime incidents at the time of the preliminary inquiry.

“I recalled the bedtime incidents within the last year or so,” he said. “I didn’t recall them at the preliminary because it must have been blocked out, or whatever.”

Also yesterday, a hearing on an application to quash abuse charges against former brother Douglas Kenny continued in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Kenny, 50, was committed to stand trial on nine charges of indecent assault, four of gross indecency and two of assault causing bodily harm against boys at Mount Cashel in the 1970s.

The defence is citing abuse of process because of the delay it took to bring the matter to court.

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Another trial opens in Mt. Cashel sex case

The Vancouver Sun

18 June 1991

Canadian Press

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. – It took over 10 minutes Monday to read the charges against Edward English, one of eight Christian Brothers accused of sexually abusing boys at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

Two men have already been convicted in the Newfoundland sex scandal.

English, 42, of St. John’s sat quietly as the 20 charges – 13 of indecent assault, five of gross indecency and two of assault causing bodily harm – were read at the beginning of his Newfoundland Supreme Court trial.

Sixteen complainants laid the charges detailing offences said to have occurred between 1971 and 1976.

The trial continues today.

In a second case, the trial of former Christian Brother Joseph Burke took an unexpected turn Monday when the Crown made an application to call rebuttal evidence.

Over defence objections, Justice Margaret Cameron granted a Crown application to present testimony by an expert witness.

The case was postponed until Wednesday to allow the out-of-province witness time to arrive in St. John’s. He is expected to address evidence given last week by two defence witnesses, a forensic psychiatrist and a forensic psychologist, both of whom treated Burke.

Burke, 42, of Vancouver faces four counts of indecent assault, three of gross indecency and one of assault causing bodily harm against boys at Mount Cashel during the 1970s.

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3 Christian Brothers must stand trial

04 December 1990

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – Three members of a Roman Catholic lay order have been ordered to stand trial on sexual abuse charges.

Harold Thorne, Alan Ralph and Edward English, members of the Christian Brothers, pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of sexually abusing boys at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the mid- 1970s. They face trials in May and June.

Ralph and English appeared in Newfoundland Supreme Court for the brief arraignment.

Brothers Kevin Short and Edward French and former brother Joseph Burke had their arraignments put over until Jan. 8.

The men are among eight members or former members of the lay order charged last year with sexual abuse following the reopening of a 1975 police investigation into complaints at Mount Cashel.

Trials can go ahead now that lawyers for five of the men have decided not to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to dismiss the charges.

The argument for dismissal – that an unreasonable delay in laying charges was an abuse of process and violated the Charter of Rights – was rejected by Newfoundland’s Appeal Court in September.

The lawyers, however, plan to raise the argument at trial.

Former brother Douglas Kenny, who was in charge of the St. John’s orphanage in 1975, is the only one of the eight men who has yet to have a preliminary hearing.

Former brother Stephen Rooney, the first to have a trial date set, appears in court April 15. Rooney was not involved in the original police investigation and did not arrive at Mount Cashel until years later.

Justice Minister Paul Dicks is considering whether obstruction charges should be laid against police, government officials and others involved in the scandal.

The 1975 police investigation was quashed before it could be completed and no charges were laid.

The charges are part of a larger scandal that since early in 1988 has seen more than 20 priests, brothers and other members of the Catholic community charged with or convicted of sexually abusing boys.

In July, Archbishop Alphonsus Penney submitted his resignation after a church-sponsored report said he was partly to blame for allowing the abuse to continue.

A special papal envoy was sent to consider Penney’s case in October but there has been no word on whether the Pope will replace him as the spiritual head of the St. John’s diocese.

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Trial date set for ex-brother in abuse case

The Toronto Star

02 November 1990

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – A former Christian Brother charged with sexually abusing boys was ordered yesterday to stand trial in Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Stephen Rooney is the first of eight brothers or former members of the Roman Catholic lay order accused of sex-related offences to have a trial date set. He is to appear April 15.

His lawyer, John McGrath, told the court he might file a motion for a change of venue because he thinks unbiased jurors will be hard to find in St. John’s.

Other lawyers representing the men have expressed concern it will be impossible for their clients to receive a fair trial here because a nine-month public inquiry was broadcast daily on a St. John’s cable station.

Weeks of shocking testimony from victims emerged at the inquiry, which focused on complaints by former residents of Mount Cashel orphanage. The probe has yet to issue its report.

The eight men were charged last year after police reopened a 1975 investigation of abuse at the orphanage in the 1970s.

Six of them – Brothers Kevin Short, Edward French, Edward English, Alan Ralph, Harold Thorne and former brother Joseph Burke – had their arraignments postponed yesterday until Dec. 3.

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Brothers escape inquiry testimony; lawyers protest

The Windsor Star

30 January 1990

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – An inquiry into the Mount Cashel orphanage was criticized Monday after ruling that Christian Brothers charged with child abuse won’t have to testify.

Inquiry head Samuel Hughes ended weeks of speculation by saying such testimony could jeopardize the brothers’ chances of fair trials.

“The concern with providing the proper environment for a fair trial is one that has always been in the mind of commission counsel and myself,” said the 72-year-old retired Ontario judge.

Inquiry lawyers wanted to call five brothers who may know about a 1975 deal to transfer two brothers suspected of abuse out of the province in exchange for no charges being laid.

SUBPOENAS TO testify had been served on brothers Edward English and Allan Ralph. But Ralph asked the Newfoundland Supreme Court to quash the order because he said it violated his constitutional rights to a fair trial.

Former orphanage resident Dereck O’Brien was outraged by Hughes’s decision.

“We, the boys, bared our souls to the inquiry, so why shouldn’t these guys do the same,” said O’Brien, one of more than 30 former residents who testified last fall about physical and sexual abuse.

The 1975 deal is at the heart of a possible coverup of abuse at the St. John’s orphanage, run by the Roman Catholic lay order.

Police interviewed 26 orphanage boys in the mid-1970s but laid no charges then. Nine brothers and former brothers were charged last year after former residents went public with their complaints.

BROTHER GABRIEL McHugh, head of the lay order, has testified he struck a deal in 1975 with Vincent McCarthy, then deputy justice minister, to send Ralph and English out of Newfoundland.

Ralph, 44, who now lives in Mono Mills, Ont., will stand trial on five counts of indecent assault. English, 40, also of Mono Mills, will be tried on 11 abuse charges.

Meanwhile, Richard Rogers, a lawyer for former residents, told the inquiry the truth about the deal may never be revealed if the brothers don’t testify.

“Obviously, these witnesses would have extremely helpful information for us,” said Rogers. “If we can’t take avail of it now, we might not ever hear of it in the future.”

Hughes said such fears are unwarranted.

“We have had a good deal of evidence, so the possibility of not ever knowing what has been alleged is a remote one,” he said.

Hughes said if the brothers are called to testify, the Crown’s ability to prosecute may be weakened.

Inquiry lawyer David Day said he and co-counsel Clay Powell agreed the brothers shouldn’t testify because the rights of the accused take precedent.

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Authorities made deal in Cashel case: witness

The Ottawa Citizen

15 December 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) — A justice official ordered two Christian Brothers out of Newfoundland in 1975 after deciding not to charge them with sexual assault, says the head of the Roman Catholic lay order.

Brother Gabriel McHugh rocked an inquiry Thursday by saying the order was part of a deal he struck with a deputy minister of justice on abuse complaints at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

And months later, three more brothers left the St. John’s institution after they too were accused of mistreating boys, he said.

McHugh claimed the agreement was reached at a meeting between himself, the then deputy minister — the late Vincent McCarthy — and Brother Dermott Nash at the Justice Department in December 1975.

The meeting occurred shortly after police began investigating the complaints and had submitted the first of two reports to McCarthy, he said.

McHugh, who oversees the international lay order from Rome, said it was McCarthy’s idea to move Brother Edward English and Brother Allan Ralph.

“He (McCarthy) indicated at that time that no charges would be laid… and that the (police) report would be placed in the files,” claimed McHugh.

The question of a high-level deal has been at the heart of the judicial inquiry, headed by retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, since it began hearings three months ago.

McHugh said English and Ralph eventually went to treatment centres in Ontario and the United States.

McHugh said he first learned about the sexual abuse complaints against the two brothers and a subsequent police investigation in a telephone call from Nash, his top Newfoundland official.

He immediately flew into St. John’s from Ontario and was told by English and Ralph that the allegations were true.

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Authorities made deal in Cashel case: witness

The Ottawa Citizen

15 December 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) — A justice official ordered two Christian Brothers out of Newfoundland in 1975 after deciding not to charge them with sexual assault, says the head of the Roman Catholic lay order.

Brother Gabriel McHugh rocked an inquiry Thursday by saying the order was part of a deal he struck with a deputy minister of justice on abuse complaints at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

And months later, three more brothers left the St. John’s institution after they too were accused of mistreating boys, he said.

McHugh claimed the agreement was reached at a meeting between himself, the then deputy minister — the late Vincent McCarthy — and Brother Dermott Nash at the Justice Department in December 1975.

The meeting occurred shortly after police began investigating the complaints and had submitted the first of two reports to McCarthy, he said.

McHugh, who oversees the international lay order from Rome, said it was McCarthy’s idea to move Brother Edward English and Brother Allan Ralph.

“He (McCarthy) indicated at that time that no charges would be laid… and that the (police) report would be placed in the files,” claimed McHugh.

The question of a high-level deal has been at the heart of the judicial inquiry, headed by retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, since it began hearings three months ago.

McHugh said English and Ralph eventually went to treatment centres in Ontario and the United States.

McHugh said he first learned about the sexual abuse complaints against the two brothers and a subsequent police investigation in a telephone call from Nash, his top Newfoundland official.

He immediately flew into St. John’s from Ontario and was told by English and Ralph that the allegations were true.

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Probe learns charge stayed if priest left; Papers show high-level officials agreed

The Edmonton Journal

06 December 1989

The Canadian Press

St. John’s, Nfld.:  An inquiry into abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage got its first glimpse Tuesday at documents indicating that high-level officials sent Christian Brothers suspected of abusing boys out of the province.

Inquiry lawyer Clay Powell produced a copy of a 1977 letter by Vincent McCarthy, a former deputy minister of justice, telling police to end their investigation of the St. John’s home for boys.

“In view of the action taken by the Christian Brothers, further police action is unwarranted in this matter,” McCarthy, who has since died, said in a letter to John Browne, then chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Another letter stated that two orphanage brothers were sent out of the province for treatment after McCarthy met with senior brothers in 1975.

It was the first time the inquiry has seen documents supporting the view that officials agreed not to lay charges if abusers were moved — a claim made by previous witnesses and a judge.

Headed by Samuel Hughes, the inquiry began to focus Tuesday on how the Newfoundland Justice Department dealt with a 1975 investigation by the constabulary, a provincial police force.

Police interviewed 26 boys but didn’t lay charges against members of the Roman Catholic lay order until this year, after former residents publicly complained of a coverup.

Powell read a 1976 letter to McCarthy from Brother Gabriel McHugh — then Canadian head of the lay order — that said Brother Allan Ralph had been transferred from Mount Cashel to Emmanuel Convalescent Foundation in Aurora, Ont.

“It is the opinion of doctors that brother is in need of psychiatric care,” McHugh stated in the letter. “He (Ralph) . . . will probably need from three to five months’ treatment.”

McHugh also said that Brother Edward English received a three-day evaluation at the House of Affirmation in Warwick, Mass., a centre for clergy. English would need another six months of therapy, he told McCarthy.

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Brother ‘choked me,’ former orphan tells Mount Cashel inquiry

The Ottawa Citizen

30 October 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP)–Tales of the temper of Brother Douglas Kenny, superintendent of the Mount Cashel orphanage in the early 1970s, were told at the Hughes inquiry today.

Leo Gerrard Rice — who happens to be a distant relative of the founder of the Christian Brothers teaching order, Brother Ignatius Rice — testified that Kenny once almost choked him for saying it was too cold to go door-to-door selling tickets to orphanage activities.

The judicial inquiry, headed by retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, is trying to determine whether there was a coverup of abuse at Mount Cashel after several boys, including Rice, complained to police in December 1975.

Eight Christian Brothers or former brothers who were at the orphanage in 1975 have been charged with physically or sexually abusing boys in their care.

Rice, a tall 31-year-old with a neatly trimmed black beard, now lives in Tulsa, Okla.

He said he had stopped selling tickets one cold day, telling the brothers that it was too cold at that time to go out.

He said Kenny approached him and accused him of refusing to sell the tickets at all. He said Kenny put him up against the wall and put his hand on his throat, leaving marks.

The next day, he said, he had dinner at his aunt’s home and she noticed the marks on his neck.

“My aunt was going to kill him,” he said.

After that, Kenny gave him no more trouble and the brother was transferred out soon afterwards.

Rice also said that Brother Edward English sexually abused him at the orphanage. Life was fine at Mount Cashel, he said, until English came in 1973 and began molesting him.

Rice said he told police of English’s sexual abuse when two officers talked to him in 1975 but did not tell them of the choking episode or any other physical abuse.

Police asked only about the sexual abuse, he said, adding that he was not sure whether the choking took place after the police statement.

Rice said he never told his relatives about the sexual abuse.

“If I had told one of my aunts or uncles they would have been doing life without parole right now. They would have killed the son-of-a-bitches.”

Brian Patrick Leonard testified that he lost a scholarship and a chance to be trained as a helicopter pilot when Kenny suddenly ejected him and all the other senior boys from a dormitory. The brother, he said, became convinced they had supplied drugs to the younger boys.

The bushy-bearded resident of the Lake Simcoe area of Ontario said Kenny called him and the other boys to his office. He told them “he was going to give us 25 cents, a sandwich and send us out on the yellow line”– meaning the middle of the street, he said.

“He did kick us out a week later. He never gave us the quarter or the sandwich.”

The drug charges were a lie, he said, but “he just makes up his mind and does what he wants.”

Kenny had written letters obtaining the scholarship, but after that incident the scholarship went up in smoke, Leonard said.

Leonard found a room in a rooming house and finished his Grade 11, then trained as an electrician.

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Police altered complaint of orphanage sex abuse, witness says

The Montreal Gazette

24 October 1989

Harvey Shepherd

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – Police altered a complaint they received from a boy at the Mount Cashel orphanage 14 years ago, leaving out serious allegations of abuse, an inquiry was told yesterday.

Former resident John Williams made the charge as he examined a 1975 police statement for the first time since he gave it to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Williams said his original complaint to the provincial police force was six pages long, not one page, and the document now contained allegations against only one Christian Brother, although he accused three brothers of physical and sexual abuse.

“That’s all that’s there, but where’s the rest of it?” said the diminutive 29-year-old.

“And there’s things that’s put in there that don’t belong there… . They’re trying so desperately to get the brothers off the hook. ”

Williams said he had complained about three members of the Roman Catholic order that runs the orphanage – Edward English, Douglas Kenny and Allan Ralph. The three are among eight brothers and former brothers recently charged with abusing boys in the 1970s.

The judicial inquiry, headed by retired Ontario Supreme Court justice Samuel Hughes and now in its sixth week, is trying to determine whether government officials covered up abuse. In December 1975, more than 20 orphanage boys were interviewed by the constabulary, but no charges were laid.

Williams – who lived in the orphanage from 1967 to 1977 – said there were numerous omissions in the statement shown to him yesterday.

He said that he had told police that he heard English tell Kenny during a heated argument that they were both homosexuals. But that accusation was not in his statement.

Williams created a controversy three weeks ago when he testified that he saw Brother John Buckingham of Vancouver commit a gross indecency with a young student in St. John’s in 1975.

Buckingham – who has never been investigated by police or been the subject of a complaint – denied the charge. Williams admitted yesterday that he never complained to police about Buckingham.

IN OTTAWA, the president-elect of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday that psychological testing of seminarians, among other measures, has cut the risk of sexual offences by priests.

But Bishop Robert Lebel of Valleyfield also noted that “original sin is still there, and human frailty.”

More than 100 Roman Catholic bishops from across Canada, who opened their week-long annual meeting yesterday, have scheduled private talks on the issue of sex abuse.

Lebel said he is aware of 18 concrete cases of alleged abuse in Canada, many of them several years old. “One case is one too many. But 18 cases in 20 years among 11,000 people is not so bad. We do not have to go into an atmosphere of panic.”

Canada has about 11,700 Roman Catholic priests and 3,700 religious brothers.

Additional reporting by Gazette reporter Harvey Shepherd

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Former orphanage resident tells probe of brutal strapping

Vancouver Sun

24 October 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. – A former resident of the Mount Cashel orphanage told a sex-abuse inquiry today that Brother Edward English strapped him until his hands and wrists were cracked for calling another boy “Brother English’s suck.”

Andre Joseph Walsh, who now lives in Hamilton, Ont., said the frequent beatings he received at the orphanage left him with a scrappy attitude. Walsh, who turns 28 on Thursday, was sent to the orphanage run by a Roman Catholic lay order called the Christian Brothers when he was seven years old. He left at age 14 and married soon after that. He has three children.

“The only thing that kept me going all these years was my wife and kids,” he said, his voice choking.

The inquiry is looking into allegations of abuse at the orphanage and how the justice system dealt with the complaints.

Conditions were bad only during the four years from 1971 to 1975 when Kenny was the superintendent and English was in charge of Walsh’s dorm, he said. After the two brothers left in 1975, things improved and the place actually became enjoyable, he said.

Walsh said the brothers did not accost him sexually, except for once early in his stay when a brother, whom he did not name, sat him on his knee and asked if he could feel anything.

Walsh said English gave him the severe strapping after he called a boy “Brother English’s suck.”

“The sucks: That was people that was treated better than some other guys,” he said. “The way we looked at it, it was probably because he was being abused by them.”

He said when English found out about the comment, he started strapping him and would not stop.

“He hit me about 60 times and he wouldn’t stop. I begged him for mercy,” he said.

On Monday, another former resident said police altered a complaint they received from him at the orphanage 14 years ago, leaving out serious allegations of abuse.

John Williams made the charge as he re-examined his 1975 police statement for the first time since he gave it to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, a provincial police force.

Williams – who in 1967 entered the orphanage for 10 years – complained that his police statement was full of omissions.

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Brother hit boy with crutch for filing complaint, probe told

The Toronto Star

21 October 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – Enraged and cursing, a former director of the Mount Cashel orphanage clobbered a boy with his wooden crutch for telling police about abuse at the institution, an inquiry has been told.

Robert Connors, a former orphanage resident, said yesterday that Christian Brother Douglas Kenny attacked him after he was interviewed for a 1975 police investigation into sexual abuse at the orphanage.

Connors said Kenny accused him of making unfair allegations about the Roman Catholic order that runs the facility, and lost control when he denied it.

“He called me a liar and up with the crutch,” Connors explained, making a sweeping gesture with his hand. “He broke the top of his crutch off my shoulder.

“Then he blurted out a few curse words and told me to get the hell out of the room and get back to my dormitory or whatever I was doing.”

Complaints ignored

It’s the second time in as many days that a former resident has testified that Kenny, described as a large man with a volatile temper, tried to intimidate them into silence.

The 1975 investigation received complaints of sexual and physical abuse from more than 20 orphanage boys but charges were never laid.

A previous police witness has said a former chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, a provincial police force, stopped the investigation before it could be completed.

The inquiry, under retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, is trying to determine if the complaints were covered up.

Connors, who spent 13 years in the orphanage from the age of 7, said he never told other brothers about the crutch-swinging incident.

“I was scared,” Connors said. “I really didn’t know if they’d take it as an insult . . . or whether I’d get another crack.”

The former resident also said he made two police statements in December, 1975, about orphanage abuse, but police did nothing. In his statements, Connors accused Kenny and three other brothers – Edward English, Edward French and Allan Ralph – of molesting him.

The men are among eight brothers and former brothers who have since been charged with sexually abusing boys.

The inquiry will continue on Monday.

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Life at Mount Cashel called hell on earth

The Toronto Globe and Mail

Friday, September 29, 1989

KEVIN COX

ST. JOHN’S — BY KEVIN COX The Globe and Mail ST. JOHN’S A former resident of the Mount Cashel orphanage says his first four years there were ”hell on earth” but he was too scared to tell police about it in 1975.

Gregory Preyshon told a royal commission that from 1971 to 1975, Brother Douglas Kenny repeatedly kissed him and once threw him on the ground when the boy spurned the brother’s advances.

Mr. Preyshon said that on one occasion Mr. Kenny punished him for saying the word Jesus. ”He put his arms around my neck and lifted me up and started banging my head off the wall and let me fall and as I was falling he kicked me in the stomach.”

Mr. Preyshon said he never complained about his treatment because Mr. Kenny was superintendent of the orphanage and was strong and cruel.

Mr. Preyshon said that he first went to Mount Cashel in 1971 at the age of 10. In December of 1975 Mr. Kenny drove him to the police station to make a statement. ”He (Mr. Kenny) said we were going to the police because of complaints about Brother (Allan) Ralph and Brother (Edward) English. He said ‘Don’t say anything about me or else.’ I felt deep in my heart if I said anything I would be beaten.”

Mr. Preyshon said he told the officers of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary only that Mr. English had been fondling him.

He said the officers said they realized he was not going to tell them anything and let him go.

The 1975 investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse by the RNC did not result in any criminal charges being laid. The commission is trying to determine why no charges were laid and how the boys’ complaints were dealt with.

When the investigation was reopened in 1989, eight brothers and former brothers, including Mr. English, Mr. Kenny and Mr. Ralph, were charged with abusing boys.

Mr. Kenny, Mr. Ralph and Mr. English left the orphanage in 1975 and, Mr. Preyshon said, conditions at Mount Cashel improved and the abuse ended.

He said the years from 1971 to 1975 were ”hell on earth.”

”I would refuse to talk about it and I said I’ll bring this to the grave with me,” he said, adding he has always felt guilty because he did not try to stop the abuse.

But when the royal commission was created this year, he said he agreed to tell for the first time what happened to him.

Earlier in the day Richard Earle told the commission how he sneaked into the orphanage one night and tried unsuccessfully to persuade his brother Shane to flee.

Mr. Earle, who said a brother made sexual advances to him when he was at Mount Cashel several years earlier, said he was told by other boys at the orphanage in 1974 that some of the brothers were homosexuals and were molesting the boys.

Mr. Earle said he entered the orphanange by a fire escape one night after he had been drinking and told Shane to get his clothes and get out of Mount Cashel.

”He (Shane) said ‘Rick, just leave me alone and let me live my own life.’ ” Mr. Earle said the Christian Brothers discovered him at the orphanage and he had to leave.

”He grew up that way and he understood that was the right way of life . . . the gay life,” Mr. Earle said.

Dereck O’Brien, another former resident at Mount Cashel, also told of his concerns for his younger brothers at the orphanage in 1974 and 1975.

He said Mr. English often dried off the younger boys after showers and stroked their penises.

He said that he also witnessed Mr. English on another boy’s back ”wrestling” in a room at the orphanage.

Mr. O’Brien, who was 14 at the time, said he had an angry confrontation with Mr. English after the brother tried to fondle the boy’s genitals and then beat the boy with a broom handle for running away.

Much of the evidence given by former residents has identified several brothers as being involved in abusing the boys.

Francis O’Dea, counsel for the Congregation of Christian Brothers, yesterday urged the commission to refrain from identifying people who have not been subject to investigations or complaints.

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Boy warned about sex abuses at orphanage, Nfld. probe told

The Toronto Star

29 September 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – After escaping from foster parents he described as cruel, Dereck O’Brien says he entered Mount Cashel orphanage only to find an enclave of abuse by Christian Brothers.

For the second time this week, the 29-year-old O’Brien told a lurid tale of abuse to an inquiry into sexual assault.

“When I arrived, I was told by other boys to watch out for certain Christian Brothers,” O’Brien said.

“They would try something sexual if they got a chance.”

O’Brien spent two years in the orphanage, begining in 1974 at the age of 14. Later, his two brothers, Ronnie and Roy, were also placed in the home for neglected boys.

Within weeks of his arrival, O’Brien said he was sickened by the abuse by brother Edward English, who he said would dry the boys’ genitals off after they came out of the orphanage’s swimming pool.

The growing resentment boiled over in 1975, when O’Brien said he heard that English had hit his brother Ronnie over the back with a broom handle for resisting his late-night advances.

O’Brien said he pushed English up against a wall outside the dining room.

“I said touch him again and I’ll beat the living . . . out of you,” he testified.

O’Brien, who said he wasn’t abused by the brothers, said he complained to the orphanage director, Brother Douglas Kenny, and threatened to go to police.

English and Kenny are among eight members and former members of the brothers – a Roman Catholic lay order – charged with sexually assaulting boys at the orphanage in the 1970s.

The judicial inquiry wants to know why police didn’t lay charges in 1975 after an investigation.

Another former resident, 27-year-old Gregory Preshyon, said Kenny smothered him in kisses at the swimming pool, the reading room and in drives to the beach.

After brief testimony today, the inquiry will adjourn until Oct. 11.

Meanwhile, a Roman Catholic priest serving a five-year prison term for sexually abusing boys has denied charges levelled against him in testimony this week.

James Hickey said yesterday he has never even seen Johnny Williams, who has told the inquiry that the priest masturbated in front him and another altar boy.

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Boys afraid to report sex abuse, hearing told

The Toronto Star

21 September 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – Boys at the Mount Cashel orphanage were afraid to complain about being sexually harassed by Christian Brothers, says a woman who used to visit the St. John’s institution.

Brenda Lundrigan said yesterday that, during her visits in the early 1970s, boys at the orphanage told her about being assaulted.

“The boys were afraid to move, afraid to say anything because of the repercussions,” Lundrigan told an inquiry into sexual abuse.

“They were taught that what the Roman Catholic Church done was right . . . and their families had deserted them.”

The judicial inquiry is looking into sexual abuse at the orphanage, a home for disadvantaged boys run by Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic lay order. Eight brothers and former brothers have been charged with abusing boys in the 1970s.

Lundrigan – who dated an orphanage resident in the early ’70s – said she saw bruises on her cousin, John Williams, who has told the inquiry he was beaten by Brother Edward English in fall of 1974.

Complaint ignored

“I wanted to go after Brother English,” said the dark-haired Lundrigan, 32, who now resides in Ontario. “It took a couple of others to hold me back.”

Lundrigan testified that she took Williams to the St. John’s district office of the provincial social services department, but her complaint was ignored by a social worker. “He didn’t seem too interested at all.”

Late in the afternoon, the inquiry was interrupted after an unidentified man called in a bomb threat.

The man said he had placed plastic explosives inside the hearing room at Exon House, which would explode in about 45 minutes, at 4 p.m.

Inquiry co-counsel David Day informed the hearing of the threat as testimony was being heard from a St. John’s teacher, Christopher Hatch.

The room and the rest of the sprawling brick building was evacuated calmly as a bomb squad arrived.

Examined bruises

After police found no trace of the bomb, the inquiry adjourned until today.

Before the interruption, Hatch testified that Williams burst into his classroom crying one morning and exclaimed that Brother English had beaten him.

Williams was taken to see his home room teacher, Marcella Whelan, who examined the bruises on the boy’s upper body. “She (Whelan) shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘Chris, what do you expect me to do about it?’ ” said Hatch.

The inquiry – headed by Samuel Hughes, a retired Ontario judge – was set up by the provincial government last June to study how the justice system responded to complaints of sexual abuse.

A total of 18 priests, brothers and other members of the Newfoundland Catholic community have been charged or convicted of sexually assaulting boys.

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Sex charges delayed too long, lawyers say

The Ottawa Citizen

27 July 1989

ST. JOHN’S (CP) — Police and senior justice officials in Newfoundland knew about sex-abuse complaints against Christian Brothers in the mid-1970s but took no action, say lawyers for two of the brothers.

“The decision was made… not to proceed with charges even though there was sufficient information available at that time,” the lawyers state in documents to the Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Eight brothers and former brothers are accused of abusing boys at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1970s.

Lawyers have asked the court to stop legal action against the two brothers because the original police investigation into the orphanage was 14 years ago. If charges were to be laid, they argue, they should have been laid sooner.

Preliminary hearings for the two men have already been postponed because of the lawyers’ petitions.

“The inordinate delay by the Crown in laying of the charges … and by proceeding against the applicant at this time constitute an abuse of process under general principles of Canadian law,” said local lawyer David Hurley in his submission.

To proceed with charges after such a long time would violate the guarantee of fundamental justice in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, said Hurley, who represents Brother Allan Ralph.

Lawyer David Orr, representing Brother Edward English, said in his brief that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary first investigated allegations of sex abuse at Mount Cashel in 1975.

During the investigation, police told English about sex-abuse allegations against him, Orr said. And English, 40, provided an investigator with a statement.

Orr also said the police report was apparently reviewed by officials in the Department of Justice and possibly other government officials.

Senior members of the constabulary, a provincial police force, and senior officials of the Justice Department were aware of the decision not to proceed with charges, he said.

Charges were eventually laid earlier this year after individuals alleged there was a cover-up. They said charges were not laid in the 1970s because church officials agreed to move the men out of Newfoundland.

Lawyers for the other six men are expected to file similar motions within days.

On Wednesday, Ralph, of Mono Mills, in southwestern Ontario, charged with five counts of indecent assault, had his hearing adjourned to Nov. 27.

And earlier in the week, English, also of Mono Mills, had his hearing rescheduled for Nov. 10. English is charged with five counts of indecent assault against boys and one count of assault causing bodily harm.