Jailed paedophile, Marist Brother and former Sale teacher and counsellor Gerard McNamara is set to be released within the next two weeks after being sentenced in the County Court on seven charges of indecent act on a child under 16.
The crimes took place in 1995 against a vulnerable student at the then Sion Campus of Catholic College Sale.
McNamara had abused the boy while giving him a massage. McNamara was a staff member at the college between 1993 and 1999, but returned in 2003 after being moved to a different school.
McNamara was found guilty of the charges by a jury in April, and in the County Court on Thursday last week, Judge Kate Hawkins sentenced him to 36 months in jail, with 31 months suspended. With 132 days served, he is eligible to be released in about two weeks time.
Between 1960 and the early 2000s, McNamara taught at schools around Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, including in Sale, Traralgon, Mt Gambier, Bendigo, Forbes, Preston and Wangaratta.
Eight-six-year-old McNamara was known as ‘The Rat’ by students at Gippsland Catholic schools. He had previously been sentenced on suspended terms in 2005 and 2016 related to sexual assaults against children at St Paul’s Catholic College in Traralgon (now part of Lavalla Catholic College). In 2018 he received a jail sentence for abusing five boys at the same school, and in 2020 was imprisoned for seven months for abusing five students between 1970 and 1975.
McNamara was respected and supported by the Marist Brothers, whose website describes the organisation as “an international religious community of more than 2400 Catholic Brothers dedicated to making Jesus known and loved through the education of young people, especially those most neglected”.
The judge had described McNamara’s offending as serious, but said his risk to the community was low and that he participated in a so-called Marist Brothers safety plan.
The Gippsland Times reached out to Catholic College Sale for comment, who referred to the Marist Brothers’ Australia’s written statement.
“The Marist Brothers acknowledge the sentence of the court in this matter,” it said.
“We extend our sincere and unreserved apology for the harm, pain and suffering caused as a result of this crime.”
The Marist Brothers had previously denounced McNamara in 2018 after he was sentenced.
Rightside Legal lawyer Laird Macdonald told the ABC the offending had a damaging flow-on effect on the boys.
“The ripple effect that runs through towns in Gippsland, it’s difficult to measure and it’s sad to think about but it’s really there, persistent damage,” he said.
“You’ve got this collection of damaged blokes all moving through high school together, into the workforce and into their town.
“They don’t trust people, they don’t engage in their community, they don’t get an education they otherwise they would get, they’ve got anger problems.
“It’s just this really compounding problem that all comes off the back of him wanting to get sexual gratification from kids.”
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