A Catholic brother who sexually abused two girls and a boy while he was a teacher at Altona North will remain a member of the clergy.
Bernard Joseph Hartman, 75, a former biology teacher at St Paul’s College in Altona North, attended a pre-sentencing hearing last week in relation to historical sexual abuse complaints made against him by one former student at the boys’ college and two women whose brothers attended the school.
On April 15, Hartman pleaded guilty in the County Court to four counts of indecent assault, including vaginal penetration of two girls, aged eight to 11, in 1981 and 1982.
On May 1, a jury found Hartman guilty of one count of indecent assault and two of common law assault against a man, now 49, who was his student in years 10 and 11 in 1981 and 1982.
At a separate trial by jury in May, Hartman was found not guilty of indecent assault against another former student.
Hartman is a brother of the Marianist religious order and has been living with another brother in St Albans since being extradited from the US to face charges in September 2013.
Father Martin Solma, Provincial of the Marianist Province of the US, said Hartman would remain a brother in the religious order.
“Unlike a diocese where a priest is in service of the bishop, members of religious congregations belong to a ‘family’,” he said. “If a member of a family commits a crime, even a serious one, he or she does not stop being a member of the family.”
He said Hartman had been under a strict ‘safety plan’ and constantly supervised since the order was first informed of the abuse.
“This is a safer situation for the public than making abusers leave the religious order and having them live on their own and unsupervised,” Father Solma said.
“Our primary concern is protecting children and caring for, supervising and monitoring offenders.
“Since 1997, Hartman has had no public ministry and no access where he could abuse again.”
David Clohessy, national director of SNAP [Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests] in the US, said the Marianists were among the “most secretive and irresponsible institutions” encountered in the network’s 26-year history.
“Like many Catholic groups, Marianists refuse to discipline those who commit or conceal child sex crimes,” he said.
“Marianists also claim to ‘monitor’ predators when in fact they rarely do,” Mr Clohessy said.
Hartman is due to be sentenced on July 24.
