Mount Cashel

Charged. Retired police officer – charged with one count of indecent assault and one of gross indecency committed between 1977 and 1978 while he worked at Mount Cashel

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Christian Brothers from Newfoundland charged, sued or accused

Brother Clement Aidan Murphy

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Heritage

Newfoundland and Labrador

Mount Cashel Orphanage Abuse Scandal Timeline

Oct. 1974	Mount Cashel residents Johnny Williams and Derek O’Brien, along with Williams’s cousin Brenda Ann Marie Lundrigan, complain to the Department of Social Services that a Christian Brother beat Williams. They allege that some of the Christian Brothers working at the Mount Cashel Boys’ Home sexually and physically abuse residents. No investigation ensues and the trio does not hear back from the department or the police.
July 1975	Ruth Williams (unrelated to Johnny) complains to social services that her nephews are being mistreated at Mount Cashel. She reports that one boy is sleeping on the floor in filthy sheets and that another says the brothers physically abuse residents. No investigation ensues.
Sept. 1975	William Earle takes his son, Billy, and fellow Mount Cashel resident Bobby Connors to the Department of Social Services. Billy Earle alleges that he was recently beaten by a brother and the two boys report physical and sexual abuse is not uncommon at the orphanage.
23 Oct. 1975	Social workers Robert Bradbury and Sharron Callahan send a letter to the department’s director of child welfare, F.J. Simms, reporting Earle’s and Connors’s allegations. They write that “charges of severe punishment by the Brothers are not new and could indicate a limited but still present level of child abuse in the institution” (Royal Commission, Vol. I 86-88). Simms forwards the complaint to Mount Cashel Superintendent Brother Douglas Kenny to deal with as he sees fit. No further action is taken.
7 Dec. 1975	Mount Cashel volunteer Chesley Riche suspects nine-year-old resident Shane Earle has been beaten by a Christian Brother and takes him to the boy’s mother’s house. Riche calls RCMP Corporal Gerald McGuire, who arrives at 4:35 p.m. and interviews Earle. Earle reports instances of physical and sexual abuse at Mount Cashel. He displays bruises received from a recent beating.
8 Dec. 1975	Riche reports Shane Earle’s allegations and his own suspicions of ongoing abuse to the Department of Social Services. Two social workers visit Shane at his mother’s house and the boy is taken to the Janeway Child Health Centre. A medical examiner reports the matter to the Newfoundland Constabulary.
9 Dec. 1975	The constabulary opens an investigation into abuse at Mount Cashel Boys’ Home. Detective Robert Hillier heads the investigation.
9-16 Dec. 1975	Hillier interviews 24 Mount Cashel residents and Shane Earle’s mother, Carol. Almost all boys report that they have witnessed or experienced physical or sexual abuse at the orphanage, committed by some of the Christian Brothers working there.
17 Dec. 1975	Hillier interviews Brothers Alan Ralph and Edward English; both confess to child molestation.
18 Dec. 1975	Chief of Police John Lawlor and Assistant Chief John Norman order Hillier to end his investigation and file a report. Hillier submits a report that day. About an hour later, Norman orders him to write a new one and delete any reference to sexual abuse. Hillier refuses, but complies when Norman says the order comes from Lawlor. Hillier destroys the first report and submits a second; it implicates five Christian Brothers working at the orphanage of abuse.
Late Dec. 1975	The Christian Brothers send Ralph and English out of the province for treatment. Other brothers implicated in Hiller’s report are removed from the orphanage in the coming months. No charges are laid as a result of Hillier’s investigation.
Jan. 1976	A mother of three boys who lived in Mount Cashel until late 1975 tells the Evening Telegram about abuse at the orphanage. The news department investigates, but the publisher prevents the story from going to press.
3 Mar. 1976	Lawlor orders Hillier to file a second report at the request of the justice department; no reason is provided. Lawlor again orders Hillier to omit references to sexual assault. Hillier submits the report later that day. No charges are laid.
26 Jan. 1977	Deputy Minister of Justice Vincent McCarthy returns the 1975 and 1976 reports to new Chief of Police John Browne with a note stating: “in view of the action taken by the Christian Brothers further police action is unwarranted in this matter” (Royal Commission, Vol. I 213).
10 Apr. 1979	Constabulary Detective Sergeant Arthur Pike appears before a closed provincial inquiry into a suspicious fire in St. John’s. He alleges that police have concealed reports of criminal activity in the past and describes the Mount Cashel investigation as an example.
17 May 1979	Two St. John’s newspapers report Pike’s allegations, but the coverage receives little attention and no action is taken.
1 Dec. 1982	Brother David Burton is convicted of molesting a boy at Mount Cashel.
13 Feb. 1989	Associate Deputy Attorney General Robert Hyslop receives a telephone call from a woman demanding a public inquiry into the 1975 Mount Cashel investigation. That night, a caller to VOCM’s popular Open Line radio show alleges that police and government officials covered up allegations of abuse at the orphanage in the 1970s.
14 Feb. 1989	Court of Appeal Judge John W. Mahoney speaks with Hyslop about the allegations broadcast on VOCM. Hyslop asks the constabulary to send him the 1975 and 1976 reports. He informs Justice Minister Lynn Verge.
15 Feb. 1989	Verge announces the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is reopening its file on the 1975 Mount Cashel investigation.
19 Mar. 1989	Former Mount Cashel resident Shane Earle goes public with his history of abuse in the weekly newspaper The Sunday Express. The article sparks a strong public reaction.
5 Apr. 1989	Earle announces he will file a lawsuit against the Christian Brothers and provincial government.
14 Apr. 1989	The province appoints a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the justice system’s handling of child-abuse allegations at Mount Cashel during the 1970s. The commission is chaired by retired Ontario Supreme Court Judge Samuel Hughes.
23 Apr. 1989	Newfoundland and Labrador Archbishop Alphonsus Penney appoints former Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Winter to lead an inquiry into sexual abuse of children by the clergy and Christian Brothers. The inquiry’s mandate includes determining “how such behavior could have gone undetected and unreported for such a long period of time.”
1 June 1989	The newly elected of government of Clyde Wells reappoints the Hughes Commission with an expanded mandate.
11 Sept. 1989	The Hughes Commission begins public hearings. More than 200 people are interviewed in the coming months, including former Mount Cashel residents and officials from the police, Social Services, and Justice Departments.
27 Nov. 1989	The Christian Brothers announce Mount Cashel will close following a gradual phasing out of services. About 70 boys still live there.
1989-1993	Nine Christian Brothers who worked at Mount Cashel in the 1970s are convicted of assault-related crimes. Prison terms range from one to 13 years.
1 June 1990	The Roman Catholic Church closes Mount Cashel.
18 July 1990	The Winter Commission releases its report. It harshly criticizes the Archdiocesan administration for its ineffectiveness and negligence in dealing with allegations of child abuse. Archbishop Penney apologizes to victims and announces that he will resign.
31 May 1991	Hughes submits his two-volume report to the province. The government delays releasing it to the public while trials are underway.
5 Apr. 1992	The Christian Brothers of Ireland formally apologize to victims of abuse at Mount Cashel.
24 Apr. 1992	The Hughes Commission report is released to the public.
21 July 1992	Demolition crews begin to tear down Mount Cashel. Work continues for two months.
Nov. 1992	The Roman Catholic Church announces it will sell the 20-acre Mount Cashel property. Sobeys expresses interest in building a grocery store on the site, but is opposed by the public.
Apr. 1993	Sobeys negotiates an option to buy the Mount Cashel site within the next five years.
25 Aug. 1995	Shane Earle accepts an undisclosed cash settlement from the Christian Brothers.
2 Dec. 1996	The Newfoundland government announces it has reached a confidential out-of-court settlement awarding $11 million to approximately 40 Mount Cashel victims. They receive the money in 1997.
8 Apr. 1998	Sobeys receives permission from the province and city to build a $20-million supermarket and housing development on the Mount Cashel site.
5 Apr. 2003	An Ontario Superior Court judge awards approximately $16 million to 83 Mount Cashel victims. Individual payments are made in 2004 and range from $20,000 to $600,000.
2009	More than 50 Mount Cashel victims still have civil suits before the courts; some allegations date back to the 1940s.

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MEDIA

Judge rejects effort to stop Catholic schools’ liquidation: Any further legal challenges will have to go to Ontario, B.C. Supreme Court judge says

The Vancouver Sun

04 June 2002

Douglas Todd

The six-year-old court battle over the fate of two Greater Vancouver Catholic schools was delayed again Monday, amidst rising allegations Christian Brothers who abused boys at a Newfoundland orphanage also molested children in B.C.

B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Don Brenner turned down the B.C. government’s application for an injunction to stop the liquidation of Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate to compensate 90 victims of abuse at Mount Cashel orphanage.

Brenner told lawyers for Attorney-General Geoff Plant they would have to take any further legal challenges to the Ontario court that first appointed a liquidator in 1996 to sell all assets of the Christian Brothers to pay victims.

The next move is now up to the attorney-general’s ministry. The B.C. government intervened in the bitter court case two weeks ago after the Supreme Court of Canada cleared the way for the schools to be sold to pay more than $67 million in compensation to the victims of 12 pedophile Christian Brothers.

David Wingfield, a lawyer for the liquidator, Arthur Anderson Inc., who is planning to sell the schools this summer, said in a brief statement he expects the matter to be dealt with “promptly” in the Ontario court.

George McIntosh, lawyer for Vancouver College, said Brenner’s decision “fully preserves the status quo.” He said he was confident the schools would remain open this fall and beyond.

Plant did not return phone calls Monday.

Meanwhile, one of the Mount Cashel victims and his lawyer were raising allegations that several Christian Brothers also abused boys in B.C.

In an interview from his home in Newfoundland, Wayne Newman, 35, recounted how he was not only repeatedly molested by a Christian Brother at Mount Cashel (for which the brother was convicted in the 1980s) but was also abused by the same brother during two trips across the country to Vancouver College.

“Everywhere the brother went, he’d take me with him. When I was in Vancouver, he kind of hid me. I wasn’t even a teenager yet,” said Newman, who ended up becoming a prostitute and a petty criminal.

Douglas Garbig, a lawyer appointed by the courts to represent Newman and many other victims of Mount Cashel, said it was common for Christian Brothers to take young children on private trips, particularly to Vancouver College, “because it’s such a nice place to visit and has a residence for the brothers.”

Six Christian Brothers, who were later charged with molesting boys at Mount Cashel, were transferred in the 1980s to teach at Vancouver College or St. Thomas More. They included Brothers Douglas Kenny, Edward French, David Burton, Edward English and Joseph Burke, who was eventually cleared of sexual abuse but convicted of physical assault.

A sixth Mount Cashel figure transferred to B.C. was Brother Kevin Short, who became principal of St. Thomas More. He was convicted in 1990 of gross indecency involving one of his Burnaby students.

Newman was not the only one to file sworn affidavits in court alleging abuse took place at either Vancouver College or St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, Garbig said.

A former teacher at Vancouver College filed a report with police in 1995, Garbig said, because she was concerned administrators were not properly responding to allegations of abuse.

As well, former students of a now-defunct Christian Brothers school in Victoria have presented statements in court alleging abuse by former Mount Cashel brothers.

Vancouver archdiocese official Greg Smith said the constant rehashing of the Mount Cashel sex scandal in the media has not been good publicity for the church. But he said Vancouver Archbishop Adam Exner will “fight to the finish” to save the schools and ensure the uninterrupted education of more than 1,600 students at the schools.

dtodd@pacpress.southam.ca

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Cashel victims’ lawyer wants abuse file public: Vancouver Catholic schools are accused of muzzling the victims’ side of the story in a court action fighting attempted liquidation

The Vancouver Sun

18 February 2000

The lawyer for 77 young men abused by Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland says two Vancouver Catholic boys’ schools are muzzling the victims’ side in a crucial B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Douglas Garbig, who is representing the Mount Cashel orphans at a liquidation hearing of the Christian Brothers order, said it’s “grossly unfair” that Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate are trying to keep sealed the testimony of the Newfoundland men who were molested by Christian Brothers.

Vancouver College and St. Thomas More, which are both run by the Christian Brothers order, are in court this week to fight an attempt by the liquidator of the Christians Brothers of Ireland in Canada (CBIC) to sell the assets of their schools to pay up to $60 million in damages to the Mount Cashel victims.

“They’re forgetting about the fact that dozens of men’s lives were ruined at Mount Cashel,” Garbig said outside the courtroom Thursday.

In his submission to unseal the victims’ testimony, Garbig argues that Vancouver College and St. Thomas More are unnecessarily trying to bury information that’s already been published about how the schools hired several Christian Brothers who had abused orphans at Mount Cashel. The Vancouver Sun first reported the fact in 1990.

Ontario Court Justice Robert Blair appointed Garbig last year to ensure “the voices of the victims” would be heard in the B.C. Supreme Court case that began this week. Blair decided last February that CBIC should liquidate to pay the victims, but left it up to a B.C. court to decide whether Vancouver College and St. Thomas More should be part of the compensation package.

Madame Justice Risa Levine agreed last October to a petition by the four Christian Brothers who hold the shares in Vancouver College to seal the identity and testimony of the Mount Cashel victims until she rules on the admissibility of the evidence during this trial.

Although the publication ban remains in effect, the various parties in the case submitted their arguments for and against unsealing the controversial documents this week. Levine has yet to hear their arguments in open court.

Lawyers for the 1,000-boy Vancouver College maintain in their submission that releasing “graphic details of abuse will unfairly link the abuse to Vancouver College.”

The lawyers say Vancouver College is “fighting for its very existence.”

On the other hand, Garbig accused Vancouver College of employing a double standard. He said Vancouver College spokesman John Nixon is “going around town” telling the media that the school has nothing to do with abuse at Mount Cashel. “But, at the same time, I’m not allowed to read the victims’ statements in court.”

In an interview Thursday, Nixon responded to Garbig’s complaints. He repeated his view that the victims’ testimony is irrelevant and that the only issue at stake in the trial is whether the Christian Brothers hold the two Vancouver schools in a special trust, which means the institutions would be protected from Justice Blair’s liquidation order.

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Chronology of the Mount Cashel case

The Toronto Globe and Mail

15 April 1992

The Globe and Mail October, 1974: Mount Cashel residents Dereck O’Brien and Johnny Williams and friend Brenda Lundrigan complain to social worker Robert Bradbury about a vicious beating suffered by Johnny.

September, 1975: Residents William Earle and Bobby Connors tell Mr. Bradbury about beatings and sexual molestation.

Oct. 23, 1975: Mr. Bradbury files a report with the director of child welfare, Frank Simms, alleging child abuse by the Christian Brothers, and suggests there may be sexual contact. Mr. Simms says Mount Cashel superintendent Douglas Kenny will deal with this.

Dec. 7: Chesley Riche, volunteer worker at Mount Cashel, takes a badly bruised Shane Earle home to his mother. An RCMP officer conducts an interview.

Dec. 8: Mr. Riche confronts Mr. Simms, demanding an investigation at Mount Cashel. Shane is seen by Dr. Paul Patey, who calls the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.

Dec. 9: Detective Robert Hillier is assigned to head up an RNC investigation. He interviews Shane and the nine-year-old boy’s mother, Carole.

Dec. 10-16: Mr. Hillier questions 25 Mount Cashel residents.

Dec. 17: The detective interviews Christian Brothers Edward English and Alan Ralph, who admit molesting boys. He is told by police chief John Lawlor, a staunch Roman Catholic, that the case is closed.

Dec. 18: Mr. Hillier writes a report, detailing sexual fondling and beatings by Christian Brothers. Deputy chief J. R. Norman demands that the sexual references be deleted. Mr. Hillier refuses.

Late December, 1975: At a meeting at the office of deputy justice minister Vincent McCarthy, representatives of Christian Brothers offer to send Brothers Ralph and English out of province. Two reporters from the Evening Telegram are told by the mother of a Mount Cashel boy that Christian Brothers are beating boys at the orphanage. Managing editor Stephen Herder kills the story.

March 3, 1976: Mr. Hillier files a second report.

Jan. 26, 1977: Mr. McCarthy returns Mr. Hillier’s reports to the RNC, saying “further police action in this matter is unwarranted.”

April 10, 1979: RNC Staff Sergeant Arthur Pike tells a closed session of a provincial inquiry into a suspicious fire at the apartment of a cabinet minister about the Mount Cashel cover-up.

May 17, 1979: Details of the Pike evidence are made public but receive little attention, despite being outlined in the Daily News, now defunct.

October, 1982: The RNC begins another investigation of sexual abuse at Mount Cashel, this time involving older boys.

November, 1982: Brother David Burton is convicted of sexually molesting boys at Mount Cashel. He is sentenced to 12 days in jail. Social worker Stead Crawford files a report with Mr. Simms outlining allegations of widespread homosexual activity at Mount Cashel. The report is referred to the Justice Department – no action is taken.

Feb. 13, 1989: Robert Hyslop, director of public prosecutions, receives a telephone call from a woman demanding a public inquiry into the Mount Cashel affair. He tells her to call a politician. Former House of Assembly member Steve Neary goes on radio and demands an inquiry.

Feb. 14, 1989: Mr. Hyslop telephones RNC Superintendent Len Power, who discovers Mr. Hillier’s reports. He contacts the justice minister, Lynn Verge.

Feb. 15: Ms. Verge announces that the RNC is reopening the investigation.

March 19: A St. John’s weekly publishes a moving article about Shane Earle, sparking a public outcry.

April 5: Mr. Earle announces he will sue the Christian Brothers and the province.

April 14: Retired Ontario Supreme Court judge Samuel Hughes is appointed to head a public inquiry.

May 31, 1991: Mr. Hughes files his report with the provincial government, but it is not released because trials are still proceeding.

April 3, 1992: Christian Brothers announce Mount Cashel will be torn down. April 24, 1992: The royal commission report is released.

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Six charged with molesting boys moved to Lower Mainland schools; Six charged brothers sent to B.C. schools

The Vancouver Sun

06 December 1990

Douglas Todd

SIX CHRISTIAN Brothers charged with molesting boys at Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland were sent to work with boys at two prominent Greater Vancouver Catholic schools.

Parents of students at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby and Vancouver College in Shaughnessy have a right to be upset that the schools took on teachers linked to the Mt. Cashel sex scandal, says Michael Harris, author of a new book called Unholy Orders: Tragedy At Mount Cashel.

St. Thomas More, perhaps unknowingly in some cases, gave teaching jobs to four Christian Brothers who had been accused of sexual assault at Mount Cashel, according to Unholy Orders and a Vancouver Sun search.

Some brothers came to Vancouver after the Christian Brothers made a secret 1976 “deal” with Newfoundland justice officials, says Unholy Orders. A damning police report about molesting at Mount Cashel was suppressed, says the book, in exchange for the Catholic order moving the accused brothers far away from Newfoundland.

“That whole process of (transferring brothers to B.C.) worked nicely because it was such a long way from the hot spot,” said Harris, a veteran investigative journalist who is now an executive director at the Newfoundland Broadcasting Corp.

Brothers Edward English and Kevin Short were sent to St. Thomas More Collegiate. Short later became principal of the 640-boy high school.

St. Thomas More also hired Brother David Burton – who was convicted in 1982 of having oral and anal sex with a Mount Cashel boy in a case that church officials strove to keep out of the public eye. The Burnaby school also took on Brother Edward French, who was charged with sexual assault in connection with incidents at Mount Cashel years after the 1976 deal.

Vancouver College was sent two brothers – ex-Mount Cashel superintendent Douglas Kenny and Joseph Burke – who are the subject of lurid allegations of physical abuse and sexual molestation at the Newfoundland orphanage. Burke became vice-principal of Vancouver College, which includes boys from Grades 1 to 12.

None of the brothers teach any longer at St. Thomas More or Vancouver College, which are run by the Christian Brothers order. Burke, Short and Burton lost their positions last year after the Mount Cashel scandal broke.

Neither St. Thomas More Collegiate principal Brother Hugh O’Neil, nor Vancouver College principal Brother Ken Farrell was available for comment.

This week in Vancouver, Harris wondered if further publicity about abuse at Mount Cashel will bring forth victims who have remained quiet. Parents who sent children to St. Thomas More or Vancouver College, he said, might receive “some surprising and disturbing answers” if they asked their children if they were ever sexually abused at the school.

Given victims’ general reluctance to admit they’ve been abused, Harris said, the frightening thing is that parents “can’t necessarily take any comfort in having their child tell them that nothing happened.”

The Christian Brothers order acted “indefensibly” by transferring brothers from Newfoundland who were the subject of criminal investigations, Harris said.

“They showed a brutal indifference to the victims and acted as if their members were above the law.

“The transfers show a strong sense of strategy for an institution that’s supposed to represent the highest ideals of humanity. It’s not as if these people are used-car salesmen.”

Unholy Orders quotes numerous documents describing the transfer of the accused molesters to Vancouver Catholic schools, including several letters from Gabriel McHugh, the head of the Christian Brothers order in Canada until 1978, and now a leader of the worldwide order.

Despite a detective’s report that five boys had made sexual-assault allegations against Kenny, Unholy Orders says McHugh wrote a letter in 1976 in which he said he hoped Kenny would “be able to assist with the boarders” at Vancouver College.

McHugh told Kenny: “I feel sure, also, that you will be happy to know that no accusations have been levelled against you whatsoever. . . . I feel sure that for awhile you will not want too many reminders of the painful experience. . . . Vancouver will take care of that.”

In transferring English to St. Thomas More, the book says McHugh “lied” to the Burnaby school’s then-principal.

Although the book says English was a pedophile under psychiatric care, McHugh told St. Thomas More that English “will prove to be a flexible and dynamic personality. . . . He became involved in the Mount Cashel situation because of his overemphasis on corporal punishment. This has been rectified and will not be a difficulty.”

Unholy Orders says McHugh knew that English hadn’t been ordered out of Newfoundland because of corporal punishment. McHugh showed “surprising” judgment, the book says, by placing English in charge of young boys at St. Thomas More despite the brother being only halfway through a six-month psychiatric program to deal with his sexual problems.

This week, in Newfoundland, English pleaded not guilty to sex-abuse charges and will stand trial in the summer of 1991.

Short, French and Burke will enter their pleas in January. Rooney’s trial begins April 15. Kenny has not yet undergone a preliminary hearing.

Newfoundland Justice Minister Paul Dicks is now considering whether obstruction of justice charges should be laid against police, government officials and others involved in the Mount Cashel scandal, which has been the subject of a royal commission.

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Official thought orphanage complaints had been resolved

The Ottawa Citizen

22 March 1990

ST. JOHN’S _ A Newfoundland official responsible for looking into sex-abuse cases testified Wednesday she has no idea why complaints in 1982 from boys at Mount Cashel orphanage were not investigated more fully.

Jean Wells, who was co-ordinator of child welfare services for the province’s Social Services Department, told the Hughes inquiry she knew about complaints at the orphanage but felt they’d been resolved.

”The surprising thing is there (was) nothing to inform me that it was discussed or (was) going to be,” Wells told the inquiry into abuse at the St. John’s orphanage.

Wells is one of several officials who have testified they don’t know why moves were not taken to help or protect orphanage residents in 1982 despite a rash of complaints.

Ronald Penney, then deputy minister of justice, told the inquiry he had a meeting with his counterpart in social services about abuse complaints but heard nothing afterward.

Penney said he should have been informed of the extent of complaints but did not receive information police had gathered. If he had that information, Penney testified he would have taken the matter to the justice minister.

Headed by retired judge Samuel Hughes, the inquiry is looking how Newfoundland officials responded to complaints of abuse at Mount Cashel.

The first group of complaints was received in 1975 when police interviewed 26 boys but laid no charges.

The inquiry has heard testimony that Christian Brothers _ a Roman Catholic lay order that intends to soon close the orphanage it has run for almost a century _ struck a deal in the 1970s with officials that no charges be laid if suspected brothers left their teaching posts.

In 1982, police again looked into complaints of sexual abuse involving 21 boys, a brother and an adult volunteer worker. The brother – David Burton – was convicted of abuse.

Government officials have said many boys had frequently performed sexual acts on each other and police were supposed to charge older boys and adults who might be abusing younger residents. But more charges were not laid until last year, when former residents went public with stories of long-standing abuse, prompting charges against nine brothers or former brothers.

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Sex abuse probe left to head of orphanage

The Toronto Star

17 February 1990

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – A former Newfoundland director of child welfare says he left a 1975 investigation of alleged sexual abuse at a Roman Catholic orphanage to the man who ran the institution.

And the superintendent of the Mount Cashel orphanage, Douglas Kenny, said the charges were groundless, but was himself accused just weeks later of being an abuser.

Kenny, a former member of the Christian Brothers order that still runs the orphanage, was charged last year with four counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency.

The former child welfare official, Frank Simms, testified yesterday at an inquiry into how sex abuse cases at the orphanage were handled.

Simms was grilled about his response to a social worker’s 1975 report detailing charges that a Christian Brother sexually and physically abused two boys, Billy Earle and Dereck O’Brien.

Inquiry lawyer David Day jumped on Simms’ revelation that he had simply asked Kenny what was going on.

“Did it occur to you to send somebody to Cashel to remove Billy Earle or ask the superintendent to have the (suspected) Brother take a spell from the orphanage?” Day asked.

Simms said he didn’t take such action because it was the first time he’d heard a complaint about Mount Cashel.

“There’s no doubt that if I had to handle that report 10 years later, it would have been done differently,” he said. “Today, that is not acceptable.”

Day pressed on, asking Simms if he ever got a report from Kenny. Simms said he had an informal, general talk with Kenny at the orphanage.

“He (Kenny) gave me the impression the allegations were unfounded and nothing more than the boys being disciplined,” said Simms.

“You didn’t ask to speak to the boys?” asked Day.

“No,” replied Simms.

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Mount Cashel had special status former official tells abuse inquiry

The Toronto Star

16 February 1990

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – Senior government officials in the 1970s made it clear the Mount Cashel orphanage was to be handled differently from other foster homes, says a former Newfoundland director of child welfare.

Frank Simms said yesterday that when he became director in 1971, there was no doubt the St. John’s orphanage was treated as separate and autonomous.

“I was given an understanding that Mount Cashel had a history, had operated independently since its beginning,” Simms told an inquiry into child abuse at the 90-year-old institution.

“Mount Cashel was not subjected to the same policy as other foster-care settings.”

Simms said he first learned about the special status for Mount Cashel – run by Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic lay order – from the late Max Vincent, who preceded him as director.

The idea of special status was reinforced by a string of ministers and deputy ministers of social services, said Simms, although he said he could not recall specific discussions on the issue.

Whether suspected child abusers at the orphanage got special treatment from justice and social services officials is at the heart of the inquiry.

Headed by retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, the commission wants to know why police didn’t lay charges when boys complained in 1975.

That year 26 boys complained of physical and sexual assaults. In 1982, police looked into complaints of homosexuality among 21 boys, a Christian Brother and an adult orphanage worker.

The Brother – David Burton – was eventually convicted of sexually abusing orphanage boys.

But it wasn’t until last year, after former residents went public with charges of abuse, that nine brothers and former brothers were charged.

Simms took the stand yesterday after two social services officials gave testimony questioning his handling of complaints.

Sheila Devine, who was assistant director of child protection in the mid-1970s, said she was shocked to learn Simms referred a 1975 report on abuse back to the orphanage’s director, Brother Douglas Kenny.

Kenny had been accused of abuse by several boys and is one of the nine men charged.

“It was of great concern to me that a referral of alleged abuse had been referred back to one of the alleged perpetrators,” said Devine, now Newfoundland’s assistant deputy minister of social services.

Devine also said Simms did not consult her on what should be done about the report.

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Brother guilty of abuse in 1982, probe told

The Montreal Gazette

12 December 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – The Newfoundland Justice Department dealt with complaints of abuse and homosexuality at the Mount Cashel orphanage in 1982 – seven years after a police investigation was halted – an inquiry was told yesterday.

Inquiry lawyer Clay Powell produced documents showing that in 1982, the department prosecuted Christian Brother David Burton, who pleaded guilty to a charge of gross indecency with an orphanage boy.

At the same time, justice officials discussed a report that indicated there might be widespread homosexuality among orphanage boys.

Powell introduced the evidence as he questioned Ronald Richards, the Crown prosecutor who handled the Burton case.

Richards testified that during Burton’s three-day court hearing, he was pressured by the Christian Brothers who run the St. John’s orphanage.

“When I was going into the courtroom itself, there’d be some of the brothers around making comments to me: `Oh, why are you doing this to the institution, why are you doing this?'” he said.

“There was certainly as much pressure that could be placed upon me, I felt, by the Christian Brothers.”

Headed by Samuel Hughes, the inquiry is looking into claims of physical and sexual abuse by the brothers, a Roman Catholic lay order.

In December 1975, police interviewed 26 boys but didn’t lay charges until this year after former residents publicly complained of a coverup. Nine brothers and former brothers have been charged.

Witnesses have testified that justice officials stopped the investigation after several brothers were moved out of the province.

Richards – who stepped down as deputy minister of justice earlier this year – said Burton offered to plead guilty if he could receive a conditional discharge with no record of conviction.

Burton also wanted his court hearing to be held in private and a publication ban placed on the identification of him and Mount Cashel.

Although he rejected the offer, Richards said the defence still tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to order a private hearing.

Brother Gordon Bellows, then Canadian head of the lay order, told the court that the publicity would seriously harm the institution.

Powell asked Richards if his anger was fuelled by knowledge of the 1975 complaints. Richards said he only learned about those complaints this year.

“If I did know … you probably would not have a Hughes inquiry in 1989 – you would have had it in 1982,” said Richards, 43.

Provincial court Judge Edward Langdon gave Burton a four-month jail term but the sentence was reduced upon appeal to time already served – 12 days.

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Publisher killed abuse story, journalists tell Cashel inquiry

The Toronto Globe and Mail

01 December 1989

Kevin Cox

ST. JOHN’S — BY KEVIN COX The Globe and Mail ST. JOHN’S The publisher of the St. John’s Evening Telegram refused to run a story 14 years ago about boys being beaten and fondled at the Mount Cashel orphanage because he did not want to destroy 100 years of good work by the Christian Brothers , two journalists say.

William Kelly and Robert Wakeham, both of whom now work for CBC television in St. John’s, told a royal commission that in either December of 1975 or 1976, they learned that two Christian Brothers had been ordered to leave Newfoundland after being accused of beating boys at the orphanage.

With the journalists’ testimony, the media joined senior police officers, politicians, clergymen, Justice Department officials and social workers in being accused before the commission of keeping quiet about abuse at the orphanage for 14 years.

Mr. Kelly, then news editor of the Telegram, angrily denied taking part in a coverup of the story about the orphanange, saying officials with the Christian Brothers and the Department of Justice misled the journalists about the extent of the abuse.

He told the commission headed by retired Ontario Supreme Court judge Samuel Hughes that after hearing allegations of abuse from the mother of two boys at the orphanage, he confirmed the story with Gerard McHugh, then provincial Superior for the Congregation of Christian Brothers and also talked to G. I. Moore, then superintendant of Mount Cashel.

Mr. Kelly said the two Brothers, Allan Ralph and Edward English, had left Newfoundland and were being treated and no one had been harmed.

He said Justice Department officials told him no criminal charges were warranted.

Both men testified that despite Mr. McHugh’s attempts to persuade Mr. Kelly not to run the story because it would damage the reputation of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, they were eager to have the story published.

But the Telegram’s publisher, Stephen Herder, killed the story.

”I felt it was a legitimate news story and should be used. . . . The thing that swayed him in the opposite direction was that the Brothers have taken care of the situation themselves,” Mr. Kelly said.

He said Mr. Herder also stressed that the alleged events were in the past, the Brothers had been sent away, the Justice Department said there were no grounds for criminal charges and Mr. McHugh said no harm was done.

”His (Mr. Herder’s) position was that the story could do more harm than good, that we could undo the good the Christian Brothers had done for 80 or 90 or 100 years,” Mr. Kelly said.

He said that while he did not agree with Mr. Herder, he believed the publisher’s decision was a reasonable one, considering the information the journalists had at the time.

Mr. Kelly added that he and Mr. Wakeham heard only about isolated incidents of boys being beaten and fondled at Mount Cashel, unlike the large number of cases of violent physical and sexual abuse that have been raised at the commission.

He said he and Mr. Wakeham were misled by both Mr. McHugh and a Justice Department official, who said there were only isolated cases of abuse at Mount Cashel.

”We weren’t part of a coverup, we were victims of a coverup,” Mr. Kelly said angrily.

Mr. Herder has been invited to testify by commission co-counsel Clay Powell and was represented by a lawyer yesterday.

Mr. Wakeham said he was upset at Mr. Herder’s decision to kill the story.

Earlier in the day, John Lawlor, who was chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary when the original allegations of abuse at Mount Cashel were investigated in 1975, explained why he can recall very few details about how the matter was handled.

He said he lost his memory after an operation on an aneurism near his heart two years ago and is only now starting to remember things that occurred in 1975.

While four of his officers have insisted Mr. Lawlor made the decision not to charge the two Christian Brothers even after they confessed to abusing boys at Mount Cashel in 1975, the former chief said he had nothing to do with the decision.

He said that decision would have been made by officials in the Justice Department and his assistant chief, the late John Norman. Mr. Lawlor said he does not remember how the decision was made to send the Brothers away from Newfoundland and not to charge them.

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Former chief admits close ties with brothers

The Vancouver Sun

30 November 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. – As allegations of sexual abuse hung over the Mount Cashel orphanage, the chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary posed for a picture with members of the Roman Catholic lay order that runs the institution.

The close ties between former chief John Lawlor and the Christian Brothers came under scrutiny today at a judicial inquiry into abuse at the St. John’s home for boys.

Headed by Samuel Hughes, the inquiry wants to know why the constabulary didn’t lay charges against brothers until this year, after former residents complained of a coverup by police and government officials.

As Lawlor tapped his fingers on the stand, inquiry lawyer Clay Powell produced a January 1976 photograph of the former chief at a St. John’s dinner to celebrate the lay order’s 100th anniversay.

The photograph – contained in an anniversary book called The Brothers Are Coming – shows then-chief Lawlor with two brothers and Anthony Murphy, then minister of social services.

At the time, the constabulary – a provincial police force – had halted an investigation into the orphanage while the provincial justice department did an internal inquiry, Lawlor has testified.

When Powell asked the former chief if he discussed the case with senior brothers at the dinner Lawlor dismissed the idea.

“Oh no, because if it did come up I’d have told them this was in the hands of the justice department,” said Lawlor, 79, who retired in 1977.

“As far as I was concerned, I had particularly nothing to do with this thing.”

As a Roman Catholic, the retired chief said he was taught as a boy by brothers and then worked with them in the community for years. He also was good friends with many brothers, including the Canadian head of the order.

Lawlor rejected any suggestion that the orphanage scandal made it difficult for him to deal with abuse complaints from orphanage boys in 1975.

But he admitted that he was shocked by the allegations.

“Seriously though, I was concerned because of the brothers, because the position they held in the community and I had a great respect for all brothers,” said Lawlor.

Asked if the then assistant police chief, John Norman, also had close ties with the brothers, Lawlor laughed and shook his head, saying Norman was not a Roman Catholic. “He (Norman) had his own religion to look after,” added Lawlor.

Continuing a second straight day of rambling testimony, Lawlor reaffirmed his position that he had little to do with the case even though he considered it a major investigation.

Robert Hillier, a retired detective who looked into the orphanage complaints, has accused Lawlor of stopping his investigation before charges could be laid.

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Why no one charged is next key question at Cashel inquiry

The Toronot Globe and Mail

28 October 1989

ST. JOHN’S — The Globe and Mail ST. JOHN’S The taxi driver gave his passenger enough time to shut the car door outside the building where a royal commission is hearing allegations of harsh punishment and sexual perversion at the Mount Cashel orphanage .

Then the driver demanded of a reporter the answer to the question most Newfoundlanders are asking whenever Mount Cashel is mentioned.

“Why the Jesus was nobody charged?” the driver asked.

That, in blunt terms, is the next troubling question to confront the royal commission, headed by Samuel Hughes, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Ontario.

The inquiry is now hearing the last of a string of witnesses who once were orphanage residents describe the horrors of sexual and physical abuse they say they suffered in the early 1970s.

Over the past three weeks the inquiry has heard what the former residents of Mount Cashel say they told the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in 1975, when two officers conducted an abbreviated investigation.

The statements to police in 1975 have been made public through the testimony of 12 residents heard at the commission thus far. Those statements indicate that the provincial police force knew about at least 10 instances of allegations of indecent assault and at least twice that many of brutal physical assaults on the boys by some of the Christian Brothers who ran the orphanage.

Despite that evidence, no charges were laid after a police investigation in 1975. When the investigation was reopened earlier this year, the RNC charged eight Brothers and former Brothers with abusing boys.

But while the theories about why charges were not laid are debated on radio phone-in shows and in bars, an outline of what and who halted the police probe has already been made public.

A decision by Mr. Justice Nathaniel Noel of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland last month rejected a request by five Christian Brothers to have charges against them dropped.

There is a ban on publication of evidence from the hearing and, at the time of its release, the decision was overshadowed by dramatic testimony at the commission by former residents.

But Judge Noel’s decision provides a glimpse of the close relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the provincial government of Conservative premier Frank Moores in 1975.

The decision shows that the one-week police investigation in 1975 was dropped after the provincial Superior of the Christian Brothers – Gerard McHugh (who died in September of this year) – had discussions with Vincent McCarthy, then the province’s deputy attorney-general, and with John Lawlor, who was chief of the provincial police.

Judge Noel said that, although there was ”direct evidence of criminal misconduct” on the part of some Christian Brothers, D. F. Nash, the provincial representative of the Brothers, assured Mr. McCarthy in December of 1975 that Brothers Allan Ralph and Edward English would be sent away from Newfoundland.

”The provincial Superior testified that the deputy minister did not give a commitment that charges would not be laid, but the agreement to remove the two applicants from the province indicates, at least, an understandimg that charges would not be laid against the applicants,” Judge Noel wrote in his decision.

In March of 1976, Detective Robert Hillier, now retired from the RNC, sent a report of his investigation of Mount Cashel, and a list of things that had not been done, to Alex Hickman, who was then the province’s justice minister and now is Chief Justice of the Newfoundland Supreme Court.

But before then, Mr. Nash met with Mr. McCarthy and promised to end what he called ”the situation” at Mount Cashel.

In a memorandum to Mr. McHugh, Mr. Nash said that Mr. Ralph and Mr. English would not return to Newfoundland and that former Mount Cashel superintendent Douglas Kenny and another Brother, Kevin Short, would not be assigned to the orphanage.

The final action in the case was taken by Mr. McCarthy in January, 1977, when he wrote to the new RNC chief, John Browne, and returned Mr. Hillier’s reports. ”In view of the action taken by the Christian Brothers, further police action is unwarranted in this matter,” Mr. McCarthy wrote.

Judge Noel took a dim view of how the matter was handled in 1975 and 1976, saying: ”The decision to terminate the investiga tion and to take no further action was not made in good faith, without fear, favor or affection in the administration of justice but for other reasons.”

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Police involvement deterred other Cashel probes

The Ottawa Citizen

26 October 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) — A pattern began to emerge Wednesday at the judicial inquiry into abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

Several concerned people say they started to act on reports of abuse in the 1970s, but trustingly dropped the matter after learning that police were already investigating.

The inquiry is looking into whether authorities covered up sexual and physical abuse of orphanage boys by members of the Christian Brothers, the Roman Catholic lay order that runs the facility.

Father Kevin Malloy, a teaching priest who was chaplain to the institution at the time, said a woman informed him there may have been abuse there.

The priest said he was alarmed and drove right over to the orphanage where he met then-superintendent, Brother Douglas Kenny.

“I said to him: ‘I just received some very disturbing news, and I think we should get down to the bottom of what is going on at Mount Cashel.’

“His reply to me was, ‘You are already too late. The police are investigating.”‘

Malloy said he called back to the woman informant and told her he had been assured police were investigating.

“So that put the thing to rest as far as I was concerned, and she seemed to be satisfied as well.”

Police did take statements in December 1975 in which several boys complained of being sexually and physically abused by some of the brothers.

The offending brothers were transferred away from Newfoundland soon afterwards, but no charges were laid until 14 years later, when the scandal broke in the news media this year.

Malloy denied an earlier accusation by Shane Earle that he had ignored the problem after Earle, a former orphanage resident, visited him early this year.

The priest said it was probably a misunderstanding.

Malloy recalled that Earle had expressed concern that the orphanage’s current residents be protected. Malloy said he acted on that request by discussing the matter with the current orphanage superintendent, Brother Barry Lynch, who assured him measures were being taken.

Ron Pumphrey, a broadcaster and writer who is widely known in Newfoundland, temporarily boarded four of his five sons in the orphanage in 1975 after his marriage broke up and while he was looking for a new home.

He told the inquiry, headed by retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, that he started checking after his sons told him some other boys had been abused. But, he said, he dropped it when police assured him the problem had been resolved.

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Police denied abuse, orphanage probe told

The Toronto Globe and Mail

26 October 1989

Kevin Cox

ST. JOHN’S — BY KEVIN COX The Globe and Mail ST. JOHN’S The father of two boys who say they were sexually molested at the Mount Cashel orphanage told a royal commission yesterday that police assured him in 1975 that no one had been abused at the institution.

Ronald Pumphrey, a St. John’s journalist, told the commission that in late 1975 the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary told him no one had been molested at the orphanage and two homosexual Christian Brothers had been ”caught in time” and moved.

Mr. Pumphrey said his sons told him they had not been molested by Christian Brothers. But in testimony before the commission and statements to police in 1975, John Pumphrey and Ian Pumphrey both said they were sexually abused by Brothers at Mount Cashel.

Mr. Pumphrey testified that he went to the RNC in December, 1975, after learning his sons had been questioned by police about allegations of boys being severely beaten and sexually abused at Mount Cashel.

But he said one of the officers investigating the case assured him that the Brothers had been sent away from Mount Cashel before anyone was harmed.

”I was given reassurances that everything was all right, that two Brothers came in from the United States and they were likely homosexuals and they were caught being too friendly with the boys and were being immediately shipped out,” Mr. Pumphrey said.

He said he asked if anyone had been hurt or molested. ”I was assured everything was fine, they were caught in time and they were moved out.”

Mr. Pumphrey added that he believed the case was a minor matter until it was reopened last spring and allegations of widespread abuse at Mount Cashel surfaced. ”You can imagine my surprise when this hearing occurred and I realized what went on.”

The royal commission, headed by Mr. Justice Samuel Hughes, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Ontario, is examining how the justice system dealt with complaints of abuse at Mount Cashel and similar cases.

No criminal charges were laid after the 1975 police investigation of allegations against several Christian Brothers. One of the central issues being examined by the royal commission is whether the decision not to lay charges was made because several Brothers agreed to leave Newfoundland.

Mr. Pumphrey, whose sons were placed in Mount Cashel when he was undergoing personal and financial problems in 1975, said he is close to his sons. He said they insisted they were not sexually abused by the Christian Brothers.

But yesterday afternoon Ian Pumphrey, now living in Iqaluit on Baffin Island, acknowledged he told police in 1975 that two Brothers had sexually abused him on several occasions.

He said that he did not even know what a homosexual was before he went into the orphanage, and that the instances of sexual abuse were not discussed with his father.

”It was something we didn’t talk about.”

The commission also heard yesterday that Rev. Kevin Molloy, a Roman Catholic priest in St. John’s, was informed in late 1975 of allegations of abuse from two women: Kathryn Burry, aunt of two boys at the orphanage, and Carol Strickland, mother of two boys at Mount Cashel.

Father Molloy, now the media spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s, testified that in 1975 he was an assistant priest in the city when Mrs. Burry told him she had heard of problems at the orphanage.

”I just got in my car and drove to Mount Cashel and met Brother (Douglas) Kenny (superintendent of the orphanage) in the doorway,” he said. ”I said to him, ‘I’ve just received some very disturbing news’ and I said, ‘What is going on here at Mount Cashel?’ His reply to me was, ‘You’re already too late. The police are investigating.’ ” He told the inquiry he put his hands up in the air and told Mr. Kenny he had nothing further to say.

Father Molloy said he never learned of the results of the police investigation but advised the two women who had talked to him that an investigation was taking place.

Also yesterday, the commission received a letter from The Globe and Mail asking that the news media be allowed to view a videotape made when a former resident testified at a closed session of the hearing Oct. 17 and Oct. 20.

A similar request was made on behalf of the Evening Telegram of St. John’s on Tuesday. A decision is expected later this week.

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Teacher ousted over sex charges back at Mount Cashel in 2 years

The Toronto Globe and Mail

28 September 1989

Kevin Cox

ST. JOHN’S – A Christian Brother was ordered out of the Mount Cashel orphanage after complaints that he was sexually molesting boys in 1970.

But two years later, Brother Allan Ralph was leading a Boy Scout troop and shortly after that, he returned to teach at Mount Cashel when a new superintendent was appointed, former orphanage resident John Williams told a royal commission yesterday.

In his testimony, Mr. Williams described sexual acts some boys had to perform with the Christian Brothers who ran the orphanage. He also said Roman Catholic priest James Hickey once masturbated in front of him.

Mr. Williams said that, in 1970, he and nine other boys complained to then superintendent Brother John Barron that Brother Ralph was abusing them.

He testified that he had seen Brother Ralph in bed with a young boy, and that the man often fondled boys’ genitals when he blessed them after they went to bed.

Mr. Williams said that when the boys complained to Brother Barron, the superintendent did not ask for details, but confronted Brother Ralph in front of the boys and ordered him to leave Mount Cashel.

“Brother Barron said (to Brother Ralph), ‘I hear you are upstairs sexually molesting the boys and physically abusing the boys. Is that true?’ ” Mr. Williams testified.

“Brother Ralph didn’t answer him so he (Brother Barron) said, ‘What are you, some kind of pig? You are going to St. Patrick’s Monastery and I won’t tell the supervisor at St. Pat’s you have been sexually abusing the boys, I’ll just say you’ve been too rough on the boys.’ ” Brother Ralph taught at the St. Patrick’s Hall school in St. John’s for two years and Mr. Williams said he saw the brother leading the school’s Boy Scout troop.

When Douglas Kenny replaced Brother Barron as superintendent, Brother Ralph returned to Mount Cashel, Mr. Williams testified.

He said the boys who complained feared Brother Ralph would make them suffer for complaining in 1970, but the brother was not assigned to their dormitory and the allegations of sexual and physical abuse were not mentioned.

Mr. Williams said that in 1974 and 1975 he had several confrontations with Brother Edward English , whom he accused of sexually abusing young boys at the orphanage.

Mr. Williams said that one night in a study hall he threatened to throw an encyclopedia at Brother English after the brother told a young boy to put his hand inside the brother’s pants.

Later that night, Mr. Williams said, he saw Brother English with his hands inside a boy’s pajama pants after the lights had been turned off in the dormitory.

The next day, Mr. Williams said, he confronted Brother English. “I told (him) that if I ever caught him again with another boy, from now on, that I was going to literally do away with him.”

He said Brother English complained to Mr. Kenny and the superintendent tried to get him transferred to another dormitory in late 1974.

“I told him (Mr. Kenny) Brother English is always coming back crying like a baby to you because I’m interfering with his thrills, his little kinky thrills.”

He also described an incident involving Father James Hickey, who masturbated in front of Mr. Williams and another boy when they were changing their gowns after acting as altar boys at Mount Cashel. Father Hickey was convicted of 20 counts of sexually abusing young boys last January and is serving a five-year sentence in New Brunswick.

In 1975, according to Mr. Williams, Brother Ralph and Brother English left Mount Cashel after a police investigation at the orphanage was completed.

Mr. Williams said he told officers with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1979 that the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary’s investigation was a coverup.

“I told them Brothers English and Ralph were shipped out in 1975, that the CID (Criminal Investigation Division) took our complaints and didn’t act on them. It was more or less a coverup.”

The commission, led by former Supreme Court of Ontario Justice Samuel Hughes, is investigating allegations of abuse at the orphanage and why no charges were laid during the 1975 investigation.

When the investigation was reopened earlier this year, eight brothers and former brothers – including Brother Ralph, Brother English and Mr. Kenny – were charged with abusing boys at the orphanage.

Earlier yesterday, another former Mount Cashel resident, Dereck O’Brien, became too upset to continue his testimony.

Mr. O’Brien had been describing how he and his two brothers were frequently beaten and sent to a dark basement at their first foster home at Mount Pearl, near St. John’s.

He broke down when he tried to describe what he saw when he and his brothers moved to Mount Cashel in 1974.

“I would see grown-ups hit little kids and I knew it was wrong. I had gone through that and I knew it wasn’t right,” he said, sobbing.

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`I was abused by every brother,’ ex-orphanage resident says

The Montreal Gazette

26 September 1989

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld. (CP) – A former resident of the Mount Cashel orphanage said yesterday he was forced to endure lewd sexual assaults and beatings from the Christian Brothers who ran the 90- year-old institution.

“Physically I was abused by, I guess, every brother that ever went into the orphanage at that time,” Robert Connors told a judicial inquiry into sexual abuse.

The inquiry, headed by retired Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, is investigating why a 1975 police investigation into complaints of abuse at the local orphanage didn’t result in charges.

In forceful, detailed testimony, the 25-year-old said Brother Allan Ralph fondled him almost every night as he lay in bed.

“Sometimes I would turn over and he’d start rubbing my butt,” said the dark-haired Connors, neatly dressed in a blue sports coat.

“There were even nights I would pretend to be asleep – and he would still do it.”

In the shower, Brother Edward English would dry his genitals with a towel, Connors said.

At the orphanage’s swimming pool, Connors said he would be assaulted by Brother Douglas Kenny, a former orphanage director.

“He (Kenny) would put me on his knee and would slip his tongue into my mouth and get me to bite his tongue,” said Connors, who now resides in Kitchener, Ont.

More assaults allegedly occurred at summer camps.

Connors said Brother Harold Thorne would beat him on the hands and buttocks with the handle of a wooden mallet used to erect tents.

Connors’s father allowed his seven children to become wards of the Social Services Department after their mother died in 1971.

Soon after, Connors and his two younger brothers were placed in the orphanage.

In September 1975, Connors and another former resident, Billy Earle, fled to Earle’s father.

The next day, they complained of physical and sexual abuse to Social Services but nothing was done, said Connors.

After laying the complaint, Connors went back to the orphanage, where he remained until 1984.

“I didn’t leave (the orphanage) because I was scared,” said Connors. “I didn’t know who to turn to.

Connors was the first former resident to tell the 2-week-old inquiry about his alleged sexual assaults. Previous witnesses have described their physical beatings or assaults on other boys.

Eight brothers and former brothers have recently been charged with sexually molesting boys at the orphanage in the 1970s – including Kenny, Ralph and English.

Later yesterday, the inquiry learned that the Social Services Department treated complaints from Mount Cashel differently than complaints from private homes.

Sharon Callaghan, who in 1975 was supervisor of the department’s St. John’s office, said her social workers kept their hands off Mount Cashel.

Complaints from the orphanage were forwarded to the provincial director of child welfare, and social workers made no further followup.

“That was an arrangement worked out between senior officials of the department and the operators of the facility (orphanage),” said Callaghan.

“The social-worker staff … would have been very much intimidated by attempting to assault the religious structure that would have been in place.”

Despite the Connors complaint, Callaghan said she wasn’t troubled about placing boys in the orphanage. But she did feel better when a committee was set up in late 1975 made up of government and orphanage officials.

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Man tells inquiry of attack by priest

The Ottawa Citizen

20 September 1989

Patrick Nagle

ST. JOHN’S — The first former resident of Mount Cashel orphanage to testify before a royal commission into abuses at the institution gave graphic testimony Tuesday of his battles with the Christian Brothers.

“It was sickening, I couldn’t forget,” said John Williams, now 29, when asked how he could recall many complex details of life at the orphanage 15 years after he says the beatings by the Irish brother who supervised his dormitory took place.

“It just doesn’t go away,” he told commissioner Samuel Hughes, a retired Ontario judge. “It’s stuck in my head. I just won’t ever forget.”

Williams also told the inquiry that he heard one of the brothers accuse the orphanage superintendent of being homosexual.

However, Williams testified that his complaints about beatings and homosexual violations presented to various authorities “fell on deaf ears” in 1974.

Williams was taken by his cousin to a social services office outside the orphanage in the fall of 1974 where he complained of the beating he had received from the dormitory supervisor and of homosexual advances toward another boy by the same man.

The assailant was identified as Edward Patrick English, a Christian Brother now facing five counts of indecent assault in connection with alleged Mount Cashel offences.

Williams said he called the Christian Brother a “queer” and another boy called the man a “jigger” — Newfoundland slang for masturbation. In a later scuffle in the dormitory washroom, Williams said he was hit by the brother with such force that a hand-shaped bruise stayed on his back for two weeks.

The two went to the office of Brother Douglas Kenny, orphanage superintendent, where Williams told Kenny he had seen English fondle an orphanage boy while supervising the bed-time routine.

“Brother Kenny said ‘get the hell out of my office’ and English said ‘If I go down, you go with me, you’re gay too, Doug’,” Williams testified.

Earlier in the day, the inquiry learned that crucial records of complaints of physical abuse at the orphanage have disappeared from the files of the Social Services Department.

Inquiry co-counsel David Day said the commission can’t find the original complaints laid by Williams in 1974 or by William Earle, the father of former resident Billy Earle, laid in September of 1975.

Day said the only document found is a photocopy of a report on the Earle case by Bradbury, who handled both complaints.

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Saw files on sex case, officer says

The Toronto Globe and Mail

14 September 1989

Thursday, September 14, 1989

ST. JOHN’S — Special to The Globe and Mail ST. JOHN’S An investigation was conducted in relation to alleged abuses at the Mount Cashel orphanage in 1975, and two police files were compiled from the probe, a Royal commission into the Newfoundland justice system was told yesterday.

Superintendent Leonard Power, testifying for the second day, said that he “did know of a complaint concerning alleged abuses concerning Mount Cashel” and that he had seen two reports concerning the subsequent investigation.

Under questioning by commission counsel David Day, Supt. Power, who is head of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary ‘s criminal investigation unit, gave the names of the investigators involved.

The question of police procedure is at the heart of this inquiry into the alleged coverup of sex abuse by the Christian brothers, a Catholic lay order, at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1970s.

When lawyer John Lavers – counsel for Douglas Kenny, a former Christian brother and the superintendent at Mount Cashel in 1975 – attempted to draw more detailed information, Mr. Day rose to say that “narrative witnesses” – that is, people directly involved in the 1975 investigation – would be called later in the inquiry.

Mr. Day said these will include officials from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, the provincial departments of Social Services and Justice, and the Mount Cashel orphanage. Some of those subpoenaed from Mount Cashel currently face charges of child abuse, Mr. Day added. (Two such witnesses, Brother Edward French and Brother Kevin Short, gained legal standing for their lawyer, Gerald O’Brien, yesterday.) After Supt. Power’s testimony, the commission, led by former Ontario judge Samuel Hughes, heard from William Whelan, superintendent of the Roman Catholic school board in St. John’s. A number of the brothers from Mount Cashel also taught in the Catholic schools.