Marylands School was a residential school for children with learning difficulties in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand. It was opened in 1955 and run by the

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order

Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God The Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, officially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God (abbreviated as O.H.), are a Catholic religious order founded in 1572. In Italian they are also known commonly as the Fatebenef ...

. The school was in Middleton but moved into premises in

Halswell Originally a separate village, Halswell is now a residential suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, located southwest of Cathedral Square on State Highway 75. History Halswell is named after Edmund Halswell QC (1790–1874), a government offi ...

vacated in the late 1960s by the

Sisters of the Good Shepherd The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The religious sisters belong to a C ...

. It changed name in 1984 to Hogben School when it was taken over by the Ministry of Education as a State special school. The land and school buildings had been owned by the Government since the 1970s when money was given for it to be rebuilt after a fire.

Sexual abuse

Staff at the school were involved in 121

sex abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...

allegations dating back from the 1970s, with about eighty former students receiving a total payout for compensation of about $5 million. By 2006, the

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n branch of the St John of God order had paid out $5.1 million to survivors who had been sexually abused at the school. A nonprofit trust, the Survivors of Sex Abuse Trust, worked with many of the victims. Over 120 complaints were made in regard to sexual and physical abuse alleged to have occurred at the school. Many of the offences were committed in the 1970s. The head of the Brothers of St John of God, Brother Timothy Graham, said,

Bernard McGrath

Brother Bernard Kevin McGrath received 21 guilty verdicts and pleaded guilty to one charge of sexually abusing boys in 2006. In 2009 TV One screened an episode of '' Real Crime: Beyond the Darklands'' in which

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

Nigel Latta Nigel Latta, (born 1967) is a New Zealand psychologist and author. He is also the host of the television show '' Beyond The Darklands'', ''The Politically Incorrect Guide to Teenagers'' and '' The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show''. He rev ...

talked to McGrath's victims and evaluated his motivations and likelihood to re-offend. In November 2012, 252 new charges were laid in New South Wales against McGrath alleging that he repeatedly raped, molested and abused dozens of young boys at church-run institutions in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese over several decades. McGrath, then aged 65 years, flew back to Christchurch from Sri Lanka on 29 November 2012 and was arrested on Friday 30 November to face proceedings to extradite him to Australia on the new charges. In late 2014 he was extradited to Australia and appeared in court on the charges contained in an 8000-page

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. One accuser, Donald Daniel Ku, would testify before the Commission in February 2022, claiming that McGrath sexually abused him in 1963 while he was a student at Marylands School and also put him in a coffin containing a dead body. in February 2022, one accuser, Donald Daniel Ku, testified before New Zealand's Royal Commission of Inqury into Abuse, claiming that McGrath sexually abused him in 1963 while he was a student Marylands School and also put him in a coffin containing a dead body. Other accusers who were students at Marylands testified as well, claiming that McGrath would sexually abuse them, make them look at dead bodies after shoving them into coffins and also physical them with objects such as crucifixes.

Brother Roger Maloney

In 2008 Brother Roger Maloney, who also worked at Marylands School, was found guilty of seven sex abuse charges and was acquitted of a further 16. After being extradited from Australia, he was jailed for three years for committing sex offences. He unsuccessfully appealed against the length of the sentence. After serving 13 months of a 33-month sentence he was accepted back into the Australian branch of the

Order of St John of God The Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, officially the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God (abbreviated as O.H.), are a Catholic religious order founded in 1572. In Italian they are also known commonly as the Fatebenef ...

Brother Raymond Garchow

Father Raymond John Garchow (1940s?–3 March 2011) was given a stay of proceedings relating to eight charges over the sexual abuse of boys because he was too ill to stand trial.

Brother William Lebler

Brother William Lebler was one of three Brothers from St John of God charged with child sex crimes in 2005. Australian Magistrate Hugh Dillon ordered Lebler, Garchow and Maloney to be extradited to New Zealand. Psychologists deemed Lebler "borderline retarded" and therefore was deemed unfit to stand trial. In 2013, Lebler was filmed by the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Sydney CBD. St John of God has paid compensation to many of Lebler's victims, often demanding the victim signs a Non Disclosure Agreement to ensure their silence

References