UPDATE::Catholic Brother Bernard Hartman jailed for three years over sex attacks on children in 1970s and 1980s | Herald Sun

THE Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne knew a Marianist brother was a sexual predator of children decades ago but it was not until today his victims finally saw him jailed.

In another scandalous blow to the church, Brother Bernard Hartman was jailed for three years, with one year suspended, for sustained sexual attacks on two young girls aged under 11 in the 1970s and a male student in the early 1980s.

County Court Judge James Parrish described the offending as “blatant” and a grave breach of Hartman's position as a teacher at St Paul's College in Altona North.

The decades-long delay in bringing Hartman to justice was used by him to argue for a reduced sentence because he had lived under the burden of his crimes for more than 40 years.

But all three victims told the court their lives had been devastated by Hartman's offending, each suffering anxiety and feeling they are unable to trust people.

Catholic Brother Bernard Hartman jailed for three years over sex attacks on children in 1970s and 1980s | Herald Sun

U.S. Catholic brother convicted of sex abuse in Australia

A Catholic brother accused of sex abuse in the U.S. has been convicted in Australia of a string of sex offenses dating back to the 1970s, when he taught at a Catholic school in Melbourne.

Bernard Hartman, who returned to Australia from the U.S. in 2013 to face the charges, was accused of abusing four children in the 1970s and 1980s, when he worked as a teacher at St Paul's College, a secondary school.

Hartman pleaded guilty in Victoria state County Court to four counts of indecent assault against two girls, and pleaded not guilty to offenses against two men who were his former students.

He was convicted of one count of indecent assault and two counts of common law assault against one of the men, and was found not guilty of another five counts of indecent assault against the same man. Last week, in a separate trial, he was found not guilty of one charge of indecent assault against the second man.
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 Last year, the head of a St. Louis-based religious order apologized after allegations of abuse surfaced against Hartman and seven other Marianist brothers who taught or worked at the Pittsburgh high school. Those cases came to light after the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh learned about the charges against Hartman in Australia.

U.S. Catholic brother convicted of sex abuse in Australia

See also: 

PA--Ex Pittsburgh Catholic cleric sentenced for sex crimes