WHEN Darcy O'Sullivan, formerly known as Brother Dominic, was preying on little school boys for his own sexual gratification in the early 1970s, the community's attitude "sucked".
"We didn't accept it," Newcastle District Court Judge Roy Ellis said.
"We didn't accept that priests, people of the cloth, would do this sort of thing, given that it is entirely inconsistent with their vows and christianity, and their victims didn't even dare to complain to any one which allowed for a continuation of conduct which probably wouldn't be the case now."
The community at that time was "somewhat naive" and did not seem to accept or understand that these offences took place.
"So individuals such as a 13 year-old-boy ... was faced with a situation where someone under whose control he was, was doing things to him that he couldn't stop.
"With the education that's given now, for anyone that does touch a child, there's a fair chance that such a child would feel empowered sufficiently to be able to complain. That was not what was happening in the 1970s."
The comments were made during the sentencing of O'Sullivan, a serial child sex offender who has been jailed for nine years.
The community had since learned through the Child Abuse Royal Commission, Judge Ellis said.
"We've seen it in the life of this victim," he said. "I have seen it in the 20 years that I have been sitting here. I've seen the impact, I've seen the trauma, I've dealt with people who've given evidence in much the same way as (this victim) ... the impact is there basically for the rest of their life."
For the vast majority of child sexual abuse victims it takes many, many years before they are emotionally ready to deal with the abuse, and state what was done to them, he said. And the impacts included substance abuse - using alcohol and drugs as a way to block it out, as well as difficulties with intimacy and forming relationships, and employment.
In other matters the percentage of guilty pleas were 'reasonable' Judge Ellis said, where it was "pretty well non-existent" in child sexual assault matters.
"One or two out of 50 sort of thing and that means all of those victims have to be traumatised all over again."
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