AN ALTONA Meadows woman says it could be just months before a Catholic brother accused of sexually abusing her as a child is extradited from the US.
Mairead Ashcroft, 48, went to the church nearly 15 years ago alleging that Brother Bernard Hartman had abused her from the ages of eight to 11.
The Marianist Brother was the Ashcroft family’s babysitter and also saw Ms Ashcroft during Saturday classes at St Paul’s College in Altona North.
An application for Brother Hartman’s extradition from the US is with the Office of Public Prosecutions. It is believed that, if extradited, Brother Hartman will be the first Catholic clergy member brought back to Australia to face justice. On January 18, 2010, Altona North police visited Ms Ashcroft to tell her that extradition laws between Australia and the US had changed.
They asked if she wanted to pursue complaints against Brother Hartman, who was still working as a Marionist.
“I said, ‘Absolutely’,” Ms Ashcroft said.
“And now, the process is happening. It’s gone to the Office of Public Prosecutions, and they should have an answer soon.’’
Three other people have contacted police, alleging Brother Hartman raped them as children or teenagers in the 1970s.
Last November, Ms Ashcroft gave evidence before the Victorian inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations.
Ms Aschroft testified that she reported her abuse in 1999 when her two eldest children, a twin boy and girl aged eight, were making their first Holy Communion.
“I first disclosed to the St Mary’s Altona church pastoral care worker, a nun, in 1999,” Ms Ashcroft said.
“I thought that due to mandatory reporting of childhood sexual abuse the church would take it further.”
In 2003, Ms Ashcroft made a statement at Sunshine police station.
In 2010, she was diagnosed at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with dissociative disorder and psychogenic seizures. She was prescribed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel to stop her acting out nightmares. The mother-of-four said her physical and emotional pain was invisible to everyone except her husband John and their three children.
She said: ‘‘The biggest wall that I had about coming forward was, ‘Oh my God, no one will believe me’. If nothing else happens and nobody else comes forward at least those victims who it may have happened to can say, ‘Oh, my God, I’m not the only one,’ and get some sort of validation, because it’s so isolating, such an isolating experience.
‘‘I can’t wait until I can meet some of them. I cannot wait.”
