School link emerges as two are charged with child sex abuse

theaustralian

A CATHOLIC brother and a former Catholic teacher charged over alleged child sex assaults had worked at the same western Sydney school, police say.

However, Sex Crimes Squad commander Detective Acting Superintendent Michael Haddow said there was no evidence to suggest they were part of a pedophile ring.

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Detectives investigating the allegations of abuse relating to three children – an eight-year-old girl in 1985 and two 13-year-old boys in 1987 – made the arrests at separate locations last night.

Police will allege some of the incidents took place at a Catholic college and a Catholic primary school in Sydney’s west.

“It will be alleged that a number of those incidents occurred on the school grounds at those particular schools,” Detective Acting Superintendent Michael Haddow told reporters.

He said police alleged that the brother worked full time at the primary school and the teacher was a relief teacher.

“One of those (men) was working as a relief teacher at the … college and also sometimes as a relief teacher at the primary school,” he said.

Police would allege that separate offences took place at separate times, although both men have been charged in relation to the same 13-year-old boy.

“The allegations … relate to separate assaults at different times,” he said.

“The evidence before us at the moment is not … that there is an actual pedophile ring, or was a pedophile ring, at that school.”

There were no allegations that the two alleged offenders committed sexual assaults together, he said.

The Catholic brother, whose charges relate to the two boys, was to appear at Wyong Local Court today and has been refused bail. The 59-year-old had been arrested at a property at The Entrance on the Central Coast.

He was charged with committing an indecent act on a child under 16 and under authority, along with five counts of indecent assault on a child under 16 and under authority.

The former teacher, a 58-year-old man arrested at a Blacktown property, was charged with offences relating to a 13-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl.

The charges are sexual assault on a child under 16, indecent assault on a child under 16, committing an indecent act on a child under 16 and indecent assault on a child under 16 and under authority.

He has been granted strict conditional bail and will appear in Blacktown Local Court on December 13.

Police said their inquiries are continuing.

This article originally appeared on theaustralian