Posted September 03, 2018 13:54:48

An 80-year-old Catholic brother who sexually abused boys while he was principal of a Gippsland school during the 1970s will serve nine months in jail, after previously receiving suspended sentences for other similar assaults.

Marist Brother Gerard McNamara pleaded guilty in July to seven charges of indecent assault, which took place while he was in charge of St Paul’s Secondary School in Traralgon.

McNamara was in his 30s when he abused the boys, aged between 12 and 15 years old, while giving them “sport massages” in a sports shed at the school, away from the main buildings.

He was the school’s sports master and the court heard he used the excuse that he was healing their injuries to assault them.

The court heard McNamara abused one of his victims 30 times.

“Your behaviour was abhorrent, repulsive and disgusting,” Judge Duncan Allen said during sentencing.

“Your actions caused shocking and ongoing trauma to your victims.

“You were a highly respected member of a religious order and you were in a position of trust and dominance, you were trusted by the parents of these children and the community.”

McNamara, who remains a Marist Brother, was sentenced to 36 months’ jail but it was partially suspended, meaning he will serve a total of nine months.

Topics: sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, melbourne-3000, traralgon-3844, vic