Sex abuse royal commission finds Catholic church failed to act against Brisbane brother over abuse complaints

Protocols at a Brisbane private school put in place after several complaints against a Marist brother in the 1990s were “inadequate and ineffective”, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has found.

Thomas Butler, known as Brother Patrick, had been teaching at Brisbane’s Marist College Ashgrove for three years — after decades teaching in various schools in New South Wales — when Catholic church authorities were made aware of historical sexual abuse complaints…