Alleged Sex Abuser

Colin Fearon

1961 approx. and other - St. Aloysius College, North Sydney
The ABC's The 7.30 Report, after Lucien Leech-Larkin alleged he and others had been sexually abused by a teacher at St Aloysius College, Sydney, 35 years ago.


Sydney Morning Herald news report July 4, 2003. "A miracle, no less - and on prime-time TV - as Jesuit sees the light"
reporter David Hardaker and producer Deb Masters went to town on a story about how Colin Edwin Fearon, a former teacher at St Aloysius College in Sydney, had sexually abused students at the school.
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The boy's parents complained, the protest was dismissed, Leech-Larkin left the school and the teacher stayed. Leech-Larkin, who had been a bright boy, now sells tickets at Kings Cross station. "[He] broke my heart," he says. "The Jesuits broke my mind."

Two Mondays ago, reporter David Hardaker and producer Deb Masters went to town on a story about how Colin Edwin Fearon,
a former teacher at St Aloysius College in Sydney, had sexually abused students at the school.

One victim was Lucien Leech-Larkin, who, until the assaults took place 35 years ago, had been a splendid student.
He was withdrawn from the school after his parent complained about Fearon to the rector of the college,
Father Tom O'Donovan, SJ. The complaints were dismissed and Fearon stayed on at his post.

As a result of these horrible experiences, Leech-Larkin suffered several nervous breakdowns, alcohol problems, an attempt on his own life, and went "walkabout" for extended periods. He was unable to keep down a job at the Attorney-General's Department where he was also a student-at-law.

The criminal charges against Fearon - a total of 17 sexual offences against three boys - went nowhere, because Judge David Shillington found he was too ill to be tried, and as "a matter of humanity" stayed the charges.

Leech-Larkin now works behind the ticket window at Kings Cross railway station. He says that "Fearon broke my heart; the Jesuits broke my mind".

The essential features of the story were told in this column on October 6, 2000. Unsurprisingly, nothing much happened as a result. It did not prompt any reconciliation, reparation or resolution of subsequent civil proceedings against the Society of Jesus.

Enter The 7.30 Report almost three years later. Its first program on the Leech-Larkin story went to air on June 23. Among other things, it touched on the highly legalistic way the religious order handled allegations of sexual misconduct. When the Jesuits got wind that the ABC was to do an expose of the Leech-Larkin case, the relatively new provincial of the society, Mark Raper SJ, promised to visit the victim at his home to express his sorrow. He also agreed to be interviewed by David Hardaker on The 7.30 Report.

However, the conciliatory home visit and the interview were suddenly cancelled. Lawyers acting for the Society of Jesus had advised Raper not to speak because to do so could compromise ongoing litigation.

Raper accepted that advice.

It was a course of behaviour adopted by Archbishop Peter Hollingworth and others, at great cost to themselves and those in distress.

However, the day after the program went to air, Raper wrote Leech-Larkin an extraordinary letter: "I'm deeply sorry for the treatment you received while you were a student at St Aloysius in the 1960s. In addition, I offer you a profound apology on behalf of the Australian Jesuits. I'm also deeply sorry that I didn't keep the appointment we had made to meet, and discuss the issues face-to-face last Saturday. It was my decision to accept the advice not to proceed with our planned get-together, and I am sorry for the further hurt this caused you."

Father Raper also changed his mind about The 7.30 Report because he appeared on a follow-up program on Tuesday night, and his remarks there were even more startling. He said he had been accepting advice against his better judgement and to ignore that advice had been a "moment of liberation".

It had been "sheer folly" to let the "legal area" dominate the "pastoral area" and this wholly unhappy episode would mean an end to the way in which the society followed legal advice.

The strategy of the legal defence has been to fight the complainant at every point and exhaust the energy and resources of the other side.

The provincial of the Jesuits was asked what would happen if the church's assets came under threat, as a result of this altered approach. Raper replied: "Um, well, the assets are not as important as the people that we seek to serve." As Maxine McKew said when she signed off, "You don't always see a genuinely transforming moment on television, but I think that was it."

Some of the legalisms adopted by the church are inspirational. The Jesuits had claimed that as Fearon's assaults had not happened on school property and were outside school hours, the trustees of the order were not liable. There was also the proposition that the Jesuit Fathers are an unincorporated association and so it is the individual Jesuits who have to be sued, all of whom have taken a vow of poverty.

In Melbourne, where similar actions are under way against the Catholic Church, one response has been that the diocese is not a legal entity because Henry VIII abolished the Catholic dioceses. You are therefore 500 years too late with your legal action.

One can understand Raper's sentiments when he says it is "liberating" to ignore the lawyers.
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