Catholic order had ‘pedophile ring’ in Victoria, Australia
A pedophile ring within a Catholic religious order in Victoria subjected boys as young as seven to pack rapes and severe beatings and covered up two killings, a victims’ advocate claims.
Wayne Chamley, a researcher with victims’ group Broken Rites, alleges The Hospitaller Order of St John of God, which operated two institutions in Victoria from 1952 to 1986, harboured up to 15 pedophiles who subjected orphans, state wards and intellectually disabled boys to sexual and physical abuse.
Two boys may have died as a result of severe beatings, and one of them had been thrown down a staircase, according to witness statements by former inmates received by Broken Rites.
Dr Chamley told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into clergy sex abuse on Friday that two boys who had been subjected to continual sexual and physical abuse were incarcerated in a mental asylum after they managed to escape the home.