Altona’s Mairead Ashcroft has spent nearly 17 years – or, as she describes it, “16 winters” – trying to get the Catholic brother who molested her as a child to face justice.
Last Friday, Bernard Joseph Hartman, 75, a teacher at St Paul’s College in Altona North from 1972 to 1984, was sentenced to three years’ prison, with one year suspended, for historical sexual abuse against a former student at the boys’ college and two girls 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 boy who was his student in years 10 and 11 in 1981 and 1982.
During Friday’s sentencing, County Court Judge James Parrish said Hartman had shown no remorse for fondling the boy’s genitalia and hitting him in the ribs and face when he resisted.
Judge Parrish categorised Hartman as a serious sex offender and placed him on the national sex offender register for life.
He said the delay in bringing Hartman to court was a strong mitigating factor against a longer sentence, and that the prospect of a sentence hanging over him all these years had been “akin to punishment”.
Ms Ashcroft said Hartman could have handed himself in to any police station at any time.
Hartman was the first Catholic clergy member extradited from the US to face justice in Australia, after laws between the two countries changed. He was arrested at Melbourne Airport in 2013, 10 years after Ms Ashcroft became the first person to file a police complaint against him.
The court on Friday heard that Hartman, who is a US citizen, planned to return there to work with the elderly as a member of the Marianist religious order, of which he has been a member for 55 years. He has previously worked with the order in a nursing home setting.
If he does return to the US after jail, it will be up to US immigration and local law enforcement whether Hartman is added to any local sex offender register.
Ms Ashcroft said she was determined to ensure Hartman remained a registered sex offender wherever he moved.
“Is he going to go back to the States and not be on a sex registry … if that is the case, I am going to use that time while he is in prison to try and do something – I don’t know what – to change that,” she said.
“Where we pretty much all run under the one federal law, each state within the United States will have different laws and that’s why there’s so much border jumping.
“This isn’t just about Hartman – Hartman is only one of many. I am going to do everything I can so that when offenders commit crimes here and go on a sex registry here, and then are sent back to their country of origin, that that sentence and that order follows them.
“If he’s not on a sex offenders registry there, he could just move in next door to anyone.”
Ms Ashcroft urged survivors to report their abuse to a counselling service or police to receive support, emphasising that such reports could remain completely confidential and no legal action need be taken.
She has started a support group for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It meets twice a month in Altona.
Details: 0401 649 967.
The Centre Against Sexual Abuse has a 24-hour sexual assault crisis line: 1800806292 or 96353610 or go online to www.casa.org.au.
