ABC Brother John Chute served time in prison for the sexual assault of students at Marist College.A man who was sexually abused while a student at a Canberra Catholic school has been awarded $135,000 in a civil court settlement.
The civil case is one of dozens settled over the past five years involving people who were students at Marist and Daramalan colleges during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.
Most of them stemmed from allegations against Brother John 'Kostka' Chute from Marist and Paul Lyons from Daramalan but an agreement between each of the parties meant the settlement deals were kept secret.
Now in one of the first cases to be made public, the ACT Supreme Court last month approved the awarding of $135,000 to a victim who claimed the Trustees of the Marist Brothers had breached its duty of care.
Efforts by the brothers to have the matter thrown out as scandalous and embarrassing were dismissed and the ABC understands that the majority of other cases settled for far more money.
It is also understood that agreement on damages for the majority of the remaining Daramalan cases was reached in a private deal earlier this year.
Moving forward
Canberra lawyer Jason Parkinson, who has represented many of the victims, says 140 matters were brought forward involving brothers at Marist and Daramalan.
He says many were settled through mediation between victims and the two colleges, based on what a judge would consider under Australian law.
"If a judge were listening to these cases, he'd be listening to the pain and suffering these men have gone through," he said.
"He'd also be considering the trespasses to their body, quite aggravating in manner and sexual nature.
"But also in 99.9 per cent of cases, that touching transfers into a serious psychiatric illness. These psychiatric illnesses run for the entire course of that person's life. You can see it in all their medical records."
Mr Parkinson says the men never complained about being assaulted as a child.
"It's only when there's an outpouring of notice ... when people see they are not the only victim ... that's when they get upset," he said.
He says the payouts help the victims improve their lives.
"They've been suffering for 20, 30, 40 years. They've had severe psychiatric problems, and they have large economic loss - they've got disrupted work histories," he said.
"So this allows the adult to improve his life. It means he can for a while stop looking backwards and can start to look forwards."
'Industrial scale abuse'
The details of the settlement come as the across the country.
"The community now understands what was happening in these orphanages, boarding schools, and boys' homes," Mr Parkinson said.
"People understand this happened and they're not believing the denials from the brothers or from the church, and they just want to find out exactly what was happening.
"Australia is going to be shocked - as I have been - at the sheer number of children that were being abused regularly and almost on an industrial scale in some of these orphanages and boys' homes.
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