http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/brett-oco...o-sydney-private-schools-20150410-1mh5zg.html
Re this article ^^ I swear I posted this QLD arrest at the time, but no matter because someone else linked it back in the thread a bit anyway (can't remember who, but thanks!!). No-one took much notice of this story but as a former Campbelltown kid (I was a teen in the 80s & certain things were common but unprosecuted knowledge) I think it probably has more relevance than most realise.
This guy was brought over the border into NSW & charged at Tweed Heads Police. He was the Director of Child Safety for the QLD Dept of Education and is the dept member who recently helped the Morcombes launch their child safety app (a fact the dept has since had to apologise to them for). His charges relate to assaults at St Gregs College, Campbelltown (a boys-only day & boarding high school run by the Marist brothers C'town) in - there it is again - 1987.
This might end up being mod-snipped, this is the first time I'm really not sure about posting but this stuff *is* in MSM from back in the 90s so a lot of articles are archived, it just hasn't been brought up in recent media re this case at all yet ...
In 1987 I knew people who were students at St Gregs (the same period Brett O'Connor is accused of assaulting students while working there) who openly discussed the "behaviour" of adult staff & "guests" toward students at the school. I have another friend who either witnessed or experienced similar things as a boarder at a prestigious Southern Highlands Catholic co-ed high school. Campbelltown & the Southern Highlands/Wingecarribee are pretty much adjoining local govt areas & I've lived in both. There's a LOT of social & business crossover between them. The same with Liverpool which is only 20 mins in the opposite direction.
Kids in Campbelltown openly discussed what went on in that school & while there were awful stories about some of the Marist Brothers (like the target of this arrest) many stories centred on a flamboyant high-profile local solicitor & former Law Society President who mentored boys at the school & was given open access to the school & students by the brothers. Favourite St Greg's boys were given work experience in his chambers & were invited to the "boys-only/no girls allowed" grog/dope/
parties at his isolated local home.
Having family connections to police & the local courts as a kid meant I was also privy to adult discussions re this man - they were much the same as the stories coming from students. Some of the allegations were eventually reported by MSM a decade after I grew up & left town, but not all. One of the allegations that was repeatedly published by MSM was the existence of an organised paedophile ring of prominent men & of children being handed around. One alleged child victim of this group was one of the Murphy brothers (Anita Cobby case). Back then the idea of organised rings sounded like an outlandish conspiracy theory & I think a lot of people decided the informants had no credibility at that point.
If you lived in Campbelltown in the 70s & 80s & you were charged with anything serious, this was the man to go to - Ivan Milat did & he got off his first rape charges. There's no shortage of newspaper articles referring to the accusations against this now-deceased solicitor as he was involved in a very high-profile defamation case (re the allegations) before his death, I'm just not sure whether I'm allowed to link - but anyone from Sydney/NSW probably has some idea who I'm talking about - even if they're unaware of the extent of what was being discussed locally for years in Campbelltown.
If BS sought legal advice over the '87 case at the time, this is who he would've gone to. **IF** he did, it also links him to cases at St Gregs
All of these historical cases seem to be connected by people &/or place .
