Kids Abused by Catholic Priest in Victoria never Reported to Police by Catholic Church

Serial Abuser, Brother Bernard Hartman

Serial abuse of Victorian children and teenagers in the 1970s and '80s,  kept quiet by the church. Police was never notified of the conduct of a catholic priest. Onee again, a pedophile has escaped justice!

Many victims of Brother Bernard Hartman have contacted The Age after Saturday's report about the fight of alleged victim, Mariead Ashcroft, to have Brother Hartman charged by police for his alleged sexual abuse of her in the '70s. The ability of Victoria Police to extradite Brother Hartman from the United States to face sexual abuse charges has increased greatly due to the emergence of several victims.

The church failed to tell Ms Ashcroft or the police that she was not the only complainant about Brother Hartman's alleged paedophilia. Ms Ashcroft reported Brother Hartman to the Catholic church in 1999 and also received a written apology from the brother, who in the '90s left Australia for the US where he remains working as a Marianist.

Another female victim, who asked for her identity to be protected, claims that around 1993, she told several Melbourne Catholic church officials that she had been sexually abused by Brother Hartman.
The woman claims she was told by church officials that Brother Hartman would be ''monitored'' by the church in the US. But she insisted that the church did nothing to ensure he would be held accountable in the Victorian criminal justice system and that church officials did not pass on her allegations to police. ''I'd like him returned to Australia and to be charged and jailed. That is what the victims deserve from our justice system,'' she said.