When paedophile Christian Brother Ronald Lasik arrived at St Brendan's College in Yeppoon in the 1970s he'd already left a trail of victims behind him in the United States and Canada.
He continued his offending at the small country boarding school on Queensland's central coast, molesting boys in front of their class, exposing himself after showering and sliding around underneath the beds of students in the darkened boarding house at night.
This story contains references to allegations of child sexual abuse that may be distressing to some readers.
Had the school's headmaster, Brother Darcy Fidelis Murphy, inquired about Brother Lasik's previous postings, he would have discovered the allegations against him in Canada and the United States.
However, earlier this month, the ABC revealed Brother Murphy himself had molested a student in the boarding house at St Brendan's in 1978 and covered it up using a false confession – a move that allowed him to become deputy headmaster of St Joseph's Nudgee College in Brisbane years later.
Lasik's presence at St Brendan's during Murphy's tenure indicates at least two paedophile Brothers at the school at the same time, with their victims too afraid to come forward. The Brother's offending has never before been made public.
Lasik was part of the American Irish Christian Brothers Order and spent time in the 1950s living and working at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland, Canada – a boys home that cared for dozens of wards of the state.
In the mid 1970s, around the time the first allegations of sexual abuse by Brothers were made public by orphans at Mount Cashel, Lasik showed up in Australia.
His first teaching post in Australia was at Clairvaux Christian Brothers College in Brisbane. A former Clairvaux student from the 1970s has since come forward to say he was physically and sexually abused by Lasik, according to the Sydney law firm representing the victim.
By 1977 Lasik arrived at St Brendan's College and immediately gained prominence for founding the school's annual rodeo – an event that continues to this day.
Former St Brendan's boarder Chris De Brincat said he was targeted by Lasik in 1977 after being left alone in the boarding house while he was sick.
"He (Lasik) came in. He had a room in the middle of the boarding house and he went and had a shower and then he came out and stood in front of me staring at me naked and drying himself,'' Mr De Brincat said.
"I was terrified. I pretended to be asleep."
Mr De Brincat said Lasik was also notorious for molesting boys in front of the whole class.
"He would bend you over the table and then play with your bottom before he caned you. The class would laugh nervously but when it happened to you it wasn't funny,'' he said.
Another student Nic*, who the ABC has previously interviewed about the abuse he suffered from Brother Murphy, says he was also abused by Lasik.
He said Lasik took him into a small room, bent him over a table and repeatedly sexually assaulted him.
Nic said he couldn't rule out that the two Brothers had been working together.
"I have a vague recollection of some sort of collaboration between them,'' he said.
By 1979, Lasik was gone from St Brendan's possibly to return to the United States where he taught at several schools and resided in Arizona.
In the late 1990s, Canadian police brought dozens of charges against Lasik and other Brothers for sexual and physical abuse of orphans at the Mount Cashel orphanage.
In 1999 he was convicted of abusing six boys at the orphanage and was sentenced to 10 and half years in jail.
In 2003 he was released from a Canadian prison on good behaviour and deported to the United States. In 2013 more allegations of him abusing boys at St Laurence in Chicago in the 1960s emerged. He died last year.
Likely there are 'dozens of victims'
Canadian lawyer Geoff Budden KC, who represented Lasik's victims from the orphanage, described him as "an absolute beast of a man".
He said he had been unaware of Lasik's Australian visits or how he was transferred.
But he said victims from the orphanage in the 1950s had made complaints to senior figures in the Catholic Church about Lasik's abuse.
Mr Budden issued a warning to Australian education authorities, saying there would likely be dozens of victims.
"You would have to assume that every boy that was exposed to him was at risk and the scale of it was a remarkable thing,'' he said.
"He would have been quite young when he went to Australia and he was a huge physically violent sexual predator in the most invasive ways and he had many victims,'' he said.
"He wasn't just a groper, he would sodomise boys and he was physically rough ... he was a man who punched little boys. I would have to assume, given his behaviours and appetites, that he probably has dozens of victims in Australia and that would be consistent with what he did in Newfoundland."
Mr Budden said there had been a crisis of leadership in the Brothers that saw Lasik get away with his crimes.
"He should have been long out of the Brothers before he went to Australia. He clearly wasn't a fit person to be caring for vulnerable children or any children at all. But he was a Brother still when he died (in 2021). He was a Brother for 70 years."
Victim says he never heard back from royal commission
Former Brothers who were at St Brendan's during Murphy and Lasik's time, do not recall any direct collaboration between the two men to cover up abuse.
But they do recall Lasik being able to "get things done" under Murphy such as starting the tradition of a school rodeo and launching a Little Athletics program in Yeppoon.
Victims of Lasik who have spoken to the ABC say they did not report the abuse to headmaster Brother Murphy.
New evidence obtained by the ABC suggest Murphy was a violent serial paedophile whose own abusing dated back to the 1960s.
Gold Coast man Ralph Pownall says he was a victim of Brother Murphy and "it is only now that the name has been made public that I feel my mates will believe me".
The ABC has obtained documents that show the Christian Brothers paid thousands of dollars to Mr Pownall who reported being sexually and physical abused by Murphy in the 1960s.
A retired jeweller, Mr Pownall said he received a settlement two years ago via the Catholic redress scheme that included payment for abuse at the hands of Murphy while at St Laurence's College in Brisbane.
He said during a school camp at Lake Manchester he was sitting on an outdoor toilet when Murphy approached him while masturbating and tried to make him "be intimate with him".
He said after he refused, Murphy targeted him at school with regular physical violence.
"I often went home with a torn shirt, bruises on my back, arms and hands where he beat me with his hands, his cane and strap.
"Nobody could understand why I kept getting in trouble with Murphy. He would hit me in class whenever he had an opportunity and send me to the headmaster's office. The headmaster would just look up and say, 'off you go Pownall'."
Mr Pownall said eventually his father, who assumed he was a bad student, removed him from the school – a scenario that led to him being unable to complete further studies.
He said he also gave information to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, but never heard whether they would do anything further about the case.
Mr Pownall said he had no doubt Murphy collaborated with other paedophiles at schools, his concerns bolstered by Murphy's acceptance of Lasik at St Brendan's in 1977 and 1978.
Christian Brothers expand investigation
The Christian Brothers said allegations about Lasik have been referred to an ongoing independent inquiry by barrister Troy Spence.
The inquiry is looking at issues relating to Murphy as well as a separate matter involving abuse allegations against wards of the state connected to former Nudgee College headmaster Brother Stephen David McLaughlin.
After being contacted by the ABC, St Brendan's College headmaster Rob Corboy issued a letter to parents and caregivers associated with the school.
He said the college was devastated to learn of the allegations and acknowledges the "bravery and courage of those who have come forward to tell their stories of this period".
"If your son or anyone within the college community is experiencing emotional distress by the nature of these allegations, we encourage you/them to contact the counselling service offered by the college,'' he said.
Mr Corboy said the allegations were not connected to the current operations at St Brendan's College which has been governed by Edmund Rice Education Australia since 2008.
St Brendan's College says it has not received any complaints about Lasik but encourages anyone with information to contact police or the Christian Brothers Oceana Province.
Murphy died in 1996 in Sydney.
This week St Joseph's College Nudgee said in light of the allegations made against Murphy it would review a decision to name one of the school's houses after him.
Students are divided into four different house divisions – one of which is called Murphy.
“Given the allegations that have been raised in recent reports by the ABC, Nudgee College will review that decision,’’ the statement said.
*Name has been changed to protect identity
