This was published 4 years ago
'I knew then, I'm on my own': How mandatory reporting laws could have helped Ben
It was with nervous hope that a 13-year-old Ben Northeast approached the confession box one day in the mid-1980s.
He was there to tell one of the most senior figures in Geelong's Catholic community of his alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a teacher who he thought he could trust.
Over the next few minutes, he divulged what he had been through.
Ben Northeast is suing the Christian Brothers over his alleged abuse at the hands of a teacher when he was 13. Credit: Simon Schluter
"All he said to me was that I had to take responsibility for what's happening. And I had to say five Hail Marys and five Our Fathers. And that was it," he recalls.
"And I just knew then, I’m on my own here."
The 13-year-old was an altar boy and had dreams of being the first Australian Pope. But that moment broke his trust not just with the man on the other side of the confessional, but the Catholic Church as an institution.
"You can't imagine the feeling of just despair and loneliness after that," he says.
Laws requiring clergy to report child abuse to authorities — even if it's heard in the confession box — came into effect last week, ending the "special treatment" for Victoria's religious institutions.
Spiritual and religious leaders are now required to report the abuse or face up to three years in prison.
It's something that Mr Northeast, who is now suing the Christian Brothers for allegedly allowing his abuse, believes could potentially have saved him from months of pain.
In a writ filed in the Supreme Court, the 46-year-old alleges his football and graphics teacher Alan Swingler groomed and sexually abused him during his time at St Mary’s Technical School in Geelong in 1985 and 1986.
He alleges Swingler would ask him to stay back for private football training, where he would touch the boy’s thighs. He also allegedly forced him to perform sexual acts.
Mr Northeast also alleges Swingler raped him several times in a locked classroom.
He says he told prominent Geelong Catholic leader Monsignor James Murray about the alleged abuse in the confessional, but it was not reported to the principal or police. Monsignor Murray has since died.
Swingler was jailed in 1995 after he was convicted of indecent assault, buggery and gross indecency relating to the sexual abuse of four boys while he was a teacher at St Joseph's College in Newtown.
In 2018, he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a student in the 1970s and was handed a three-year suspended sentence.
Mr Northeast's legal team have alleged St Mary’s Technical School, run by the Christian Brothers, was negligent as it knew, or ought to have known, about Swingler’s history of child sexual abuse during his previous position at St Joseph’s College.
Mr Northeast left school early. By 16, he was drinking heavily and he has since suffered PTSD, substance abuse, anxiety and depression.
The experience with Monsignor Murray in the confession box shattered his trust "with everyone and everything", he says.
"I thought he was going to come riding in with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and save me and it just didn't happen," he says.
Mr Northeast's lawyer John Rule, from Maurice Blackburn, said the case highlighted the importance of mandatory reporting.
“These laws are definitely a good thing, they were obviously a main recommendation of the Royal Commission and the government has done the right thing in putting them through," he said.
“In a case like Ben’s, if those laws had been in place back then and had been followed then this particular perpetrator may have been brought to attention of police a decade earlier and who knows how many episodes of abuse that might have prevented.”
However, comments made last year by Archbishop Peter Comensoli - who said he personally would keep the seal of confession - have made Mr Rule and Mr Northeast both doubt the church's claims that they will abide by the new laws.
A spokeswoman from the archdiocese said: “The Archbishop, clergy, staff and volunteers of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne support the mandatory reporting laws”.
A spokesman for The Christian Brothers Oceania Province said: "This is a current litigated civil claim brought by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers and as a result the Christian Brothers are required to provide a defence to the claim and the allegations contained in that claim in accordance with court rules.
"The Christian Brothers do not comment publicly on the detail of any allegation which is the subject of ongoing legal processes."
They did not answer questions about their position on the mandatory reporting laws.