House debates
Monday, 25 May 2009
Statements by Members
Brother Richard Doheny FSP
6:40 pm
David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source
I recently attended the funeral of a great man, Brother Richard Doheny FSP, who passed away on 13 May 2009 at the age of 74. Brother Richard was a man of devotion and commitment. He was devoted to his God and committed to his sport and to shaping the minds of the young men he taught, coached and mentored. He taught at both primary and secondary schools, but for the largest part of his vocation was a revered and integral part of the Patrician Brothers’ College community at Fairfield, where he was my rugby league and cricket coach.
Brother Richard, who emigrated from Ireland in 1956 and was a member of the Patrician congregation for 56 years, will be remembered as an icon of the college and will always be held in the highest esteem by those who knew him and served with him. At a time when rugby league has received much bad publicity, the code would do well to highlight the great contribution of men like Brother Richard to the sport and to the development of character and respect amongst generations of young men. Among the many insights that he has left behind for us is the invocation, heralded at the beginning of many a sporting season: ‘Lads, you can’t fatten the pig on the day of the market.’
Comments
carlos aparicio
Posted on 13 Apr 2012 8:15 pm
i too attended patrician brothers granville during the mid 80's. i also confirm brandon's comments. brother richard was an evil predator of young boys. i also remember that dirty unwashed dog of his in the class room & his bag on the floor with porn in it.
he was the only person in my entire life that scared me to death. i too felt the sting of his rubber strap first week at school for taking shelter in the corradoor from the rain.
school camps horrified me. he would watch us shower & if he didn't think we washed enough he would reach in & wash us himself. i ended up swalling detergent, burning my throat to get out of camp.
playing handball before school i broke his office window with the tennis ball. i passed out in fear. not for getting in trouble or breaking the window. but of brother richard. he grabbed me by the neck & kept me in his office all day. i missed all classes.
that's when to my horror i saw what he'd been doing to another student who rarely attended classes coz he spent all day everyday in brother richards office. i was forced to sit in the corner of his office & watch him with his hands down this students pants while sitting on his lap. he ordered me to approach. if i had a knife i would have cut my own throat.
there's more. i could go on but i won't coz a can't stop shaking. i know for a fact there are others out there who are glad that this evil monster is now burning in hell for his sins.
Brian JAMES
Posted on 18 Dec 2012 4:48 pm
I have read with horror the comments made by David Bradbury. All can say is that my experience with Brother Richard was very different to the great man he described. I recently returned to Smithfield where I grew up and was shown the article by Bradbury. It is difficult to know where to start with the injustices that that fiend inflicted on defenseless students. I attended Patrician Brothers in 1975 and 1976 and was at the Junior School. I remember clearly getting into trouble in the class I was in and being put into his class, which was 6A and he had the middle classroom that faced onto the then Horsley Drive. Doheny after lunch would shut the curtains and light a cigarette (that he had in a cigarette holder) and call one of his favorite children to come and sit on his lap while Doheny had is hand in cassock and touching his penis. He used to have this dog called digger. We went to these camps at Douglas Park and the shower consisted of a canvas sheet and a hose and we used to have to line up and we would soap ourselves up while he hosed us down and commented on our bodies. If we needed to move anywhere he was always touching us on the buttocks. I once got caught being somewhere in Fairfield where I should not have been and he called me into his back office in the walk way to the class rooms and he asked me questions like, Did they touch your privates and numerous other questions like that. There was no reason to ask me questions like that but all the time he was talking to me he had his hand under his Cossack and was masturbating. I too was struck lots of times by that rubber strap that he had and I witnessed the way he would beat and bully other students who didnt do what he asked. So yes, lets remember Doheny as the fiend as he was. He was pedophile and bully. So never write that he was a "great man" again because there are lots of other children who remember him the way I have described . I support the claims of Carlos and Brandon.
John Sweeney
Posted on 21 Dec 2013 12:38 pm
I attended Fairfield Patrician Brothers and agree fully with the above comments, this man was a sick child molester and also had links to other evil shits like Dolly Dunn, one of his chums was my year 7 teacher who was caught molesting children and killed himself. I hope Richard your death was long and painful.
tony Mckinnon
Posted on 30 Apr 2014 8:24 pm
I am shocked at Bradbury's insensitive ignorance, i can only imagine that he must be suffering from
Stockholm - Syndrome. (a psychotic illness where the Victim loves the Abuser) maybe Bradbury is suffering more then the rest of us, maybe he is more affected then the rest of us, as I can not believe that there is even one person on this earth that would ever surrender a good word in regards to richard
I also remember richards's Cruelty and Perversion, I remember going away on a school camp and having to stand bare naked in a field, in front of Richard and some other men. I was only 10 years old (shame shame shame)
back in the class room I can still remember the Pixie with the irish accent and his mongrel dog roaming the room, I remember his ugly screwed-up face getting excited as he paced the room repeating the phrase "it's normal to have a stiffy boys, who's got a stiffy" (i remember these words as if it was only yesterday)
I was terrified of richard, I use to cut chunks of hair off my head I tried to make myself look less appealing to him to avoid his attention (I still have some of these year 5 pictures of my hacked-up haircuts) things got so bad for me that I jigged school for 3 months, when my mother found out about my absence she went to the school to talk to richard about my fear of going to his school and just then by chance she witnessed his dog biting a fellow student, she addressed the dog's behaviour with richard but he ignored her, and my mother withdrew me from the school.
when I read Carlo's post about smashing richard's window, it brought back immediate fear, I felt the absolute fear Carlos must have felt at smashing richard's window, I once fell off the pathway into his garden and I got belted badly, if I had smashed his window I would have ran out of the playground and into an oncoming car i would have killed myself, no way would I be facing him if I smashed his window.
I only have one regret, that as an adult, I didn't hunt richard down and rip his clothes off in public, and beat the hell out of him and terrorise him with gut wrenching fear, I wish I got to see him suffering in illness, and to tell him ..... "who's got a stiffy now richard, you are close to death and your brain will soon solidify but it's normal to be a stiffy Richard after death) I would have told him your pain will not finish at death richard, evil bastards like you will still ache on the other-side for all eternity.
I wish I were there at his funeral, I wish I got the chance to debated Bradbury in public and discredit his ignorant Eulogy.
does anyone know if brother richard used any alias as there is another convicted paedophile by the name of Brother Doheny on the Broken -Rites website who has the same surname as richard and that filthy paedophile was also using aliases......
(the following was copy and pasted)
Black Collar Crime | Broken Rites Australia
www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/235‎
Nov 3, 2013 - In 1995, Christian Brother Gerard William Dick (then aged 67) was sentenced ...... He was born (real name John Doheny) on 3 September 1935 in Ireland ..... The Christian Brothers harboured this paedophile in their schools ...
Ray Bazouni
Posted on 20 Nov 2015 12:44 pm
Bradbury is delusional and obviously didn't know Brother Richard at all. He was my principal at Patrician Brothers Granville in 1985-86. I too remember the school camp referred to by Brandon Chant where he lined us all up naked in the group shower in 1985. What a sick piece of work! I remember all us kids knew you wouldn't want to be called up to his office because we all knew he was a sick paedophile. I'm sure the adults would have known too, as this was no secret to any of us kids there at the time. And that stupid dog of his - we'd all peg rubbers and the like at it whenever Brother Richard left the classroom. The dog was so old and feeble it would walk out almost in slow motion but it would eventually follow him out of the classroom. I hope he's in hell right now where he belongs.
Ray Bazouni
Posted on 21 Nov 2015 7:13 pm
Apologies I was actually there in the juniors with brother Richard in 1980-81. The naked shower line up was at Douglas Park in 1981. He was obviously doing this for many years. Hope he rots in hell very slowly along with that mutt of his.
Stephen Manzini
Posted on 17 Dec 2017 11:25 pm
My name is Stephen Manzini. Istarted 5th class in 1975. The primary school principal was Brother Richard.Ne was a very cruel nasty man who seemed to get a lot of pleasure out of "belting boys" with the leather strap with the nails in the end of it. He was relentless.... The worst experience was the Douglas Park camps...Oh my God. Us kids could not be further removed from safety. Bro Richard would march us down a ply wood path, under the limb of a tree, completely naked, and made us wash in front of ,not only my peers, but the other Brothers. He also grabbed my genitals after I scrapped my self on the rocks absailing .....saying' look at how dirty you are boy' I was traumatised. I asked one of the womens auxillary to drive to Wilton and ring my Aunty and Uncle, who lived in Dapto to come and pick me up,which she did. Got me away from there. The ladies auxillary didn't know how to deal with this. Here's the stinger.......When I spoke to my Mum and Dad about what happened, they told me that I was a liar.When are people going to wake up to the fact that kids don't make this stuff up!
Brandon Chant
Posted on 8 Mar 2018 11:36 am
Mar Anton - tell us your stories about what made Brother Richard so lovely and kind. Clearly the experiences of myself and the others who have commented here are contradictory to your own. Given we have very clear memories of what Brother Richard was like, it would be good for you to elaborate on why you thought him to be so lovely. It would give your claim more weight, because as it stands, it would seem you’ve just made a very weak attempt to contradict what the rest of us have written here.
On another note I am very heartened to read the other comments on this thread. Whilst Brother Richard’s behaviour was evil and criminal, and no kid should have to experience it, it is good to know that other people also remember what he was really like, and I hope all of you gain some sense of closure from reading this thread. I am considering taking legal action against the Catholic Church because of the crimes committed by this monster, and I would encourage everyone else he terrorised to consider taking the same action.
Bernie Ramsay
Posted on 2 Aug 2018 9:19 pm
I can’t believe the comments I read above. I’ll never forget the torture and torment I was subjected to by this evil person. I can’t call him a man because he wasn’t as he was definatetly not somebody I looked up to. He terrorised students. I was there in 1978-79 and my memories are not jaded when I say I too experienced this uncomfortable treatment while on school camp. He would make it his duty to make sure he stripped us of our dignity. Many boys I went to school with then were abused sexually, one in which involved in the tent which he made sure he shared with us on many occasions.
I do recall he also, made an attempt with me but I was able to pull away from his grasp. I feel sorry for the boys he did successfully groom to abuse. Why was he allowed to get way with this right into the 90s. Why did our parents lack the intestinal fortitude to take legal action. Because the school would have threatened us with expulsion. Our parents didn’t want to rock the boat and didn’t believe the stories we told. Very sad actually. Bro Richard never faced the music. He never served time and now the Patrician Brothers are paying for it. Now that’s sad because the school had a huge impact on my education. I’m just glad I wised to his sick preying behaviour and avoided him.
I have no nice words to say sorry.
Carl HANICH
Posted on 21 Nov 2018 9:33 pm
I attended Patrician Bothers College Fairfield from 1975 to 1982. I have just stumbled onto this website after a family function on the weekend with my brothers and cousin who also attended PBCF. I think I remember Brian James; Cyclone Tracy in Darwin in 1974?
My 8 years at PBCF gave me a strong foundation in life. There were tremendous brothers like Aengus, Christopher, Anthony, Thomas, Mark etc who devoted their life to God and education.
Richard though was an absolute a***hole. I went on three camps at Douglas Park. In Yr 5, I was only 10 yo as were most of the boys. Why didn’t the lay teachers on staff speak up? There is nothing written above that I disagree with. The other comments are all consistent with my experiences at PBCF, from what I witnessed and from what I heard at the time. I fortunately was not abused by Richard and did not get a canning from him, I was truly lucky. Fortunately, this would not happen today in Australia, to that extent and with that brutality.
It is absolutely amazing that Richard was never charged. There must have been an overwhelming number of incidents and witnesses. Fortunately for Richard, he never ran into an ex-student outside school grounds, as it probably would have made the nightly news.
The M5 was being built in those years, the camp site was very close to the M5. Driving past on the way back to Sydney, I tell my wife and kids about the school camps (when camping was in actual tents in the bush), but I never mention Richard.
Michael Dixon
Posted on 27 Feb 2019 10:24 am
After Pells conviction yesterday, i did a search on Brother Richard to see if he had been done as a pedo as he defiantly was one, where i came across this page with the first post glorifying him, I'm glad to see, the truth about this creep in the following posts. I was at St Pats Granville from 85-88, Brother Richard was the most feared predator at that school, I coped his rubber strap on many occasions, having to go back and hold the legs of my desk (as they were metal and cold - to try and soothe the welts) "6 of the best" he would say cheerfully and he certainly enjoyed dishing it out, i clearly remember most classes i had with him, only due to how weird it was, almost every class, he would have a boy sit on his lap and feel them up as the rest of us did our work. total grub of a man. he should had rotted in prison
Bernie Ramsay
Posted on 17 Jul 2019 10:34 am
Just wanted to update on the whereabouts of Richards grave at Kemp’s Creek cemetery. It’s an unmarked grave so you will have trouble finding it! Not that I was looking but it’s just that I have family and friends buried there and my curiosity got the better of me! I also believe he didn’t have much of a funeral. Not many people attended. So he didn’t get the send off he did not deserve thank god.
Peter Smith
Posted on 2 Jun 2020 3:44 pm
Disgusted, well that is one of many words that explains this evil sod. A couple of months ago I came across this blog and was mortified that SO many young boys and young men were affected by him - Richard Doheny (definitely does not deserve the title of Brother or any title for that matter).
The horrible things this cretan did to me will be etched in my memory, his most evil predatory nature shaped things for my future that I never asked for or obviously wanted.
I felt ill to the bone when I read the things the other gentleman had wrote about their past experiences. It was all to real again. His nicotine stained fingers, that chilling urrrrrrgh he would expel from that pathetic smoke stained mouth, hiding behind a religious cover. I will say, as hard as it is I lost count of the abuse he inflicted on me, not to mention the abuse in class in front of my classmates. The Strap, his flee ridden mut, that shitty Coaster bus, his scary office, his evil whispers and well.... that is as much as i can say and handle today.
Out of all of this I want to Thank you for now, everyone who has brought this up from their past, it is isn't easy, but just to say Thank you to you for doing this. This has opened things up for me, it has become a personal pursuit of mine, after allowing this horrible part of my life to be brought to the surface, i will not just let it lie.
Thank you as well to a couple of people on here who have given their support.
tony mckinnon
Posted on 14 Jul 2020 3:05 pm
https://kelsolawyers.com/au/paedophile-offenders/brother-ric...
tony mckinnon
Posted on 14 Jul 2020 3:09 pm
Kelso Lawyers want all ex students of Brother Richard to visit the link posted by John Allan
tony mckinnon
Posted on 14 Jul 2020 6:41 pm
Kelso Lawyers want all ex students of Brother Richard to visit the link posted by John Allan
https://kelsolawyers.com/au/paedophile-offenders/brother-ric...
Romeo Alvaro
Posted on 16 Jul 2020 6:43 pm
Your article on Patrician Brother Richard is chilling:
1. As a student I was on a cadet camp in year 11 and he cane up to gan gan army base just to supervise the naked showers of boys 2. As a brother of St Gerard ( we had our own abusers) I coached a football team that versed his patrician brothers team; he was being such a mean bastard that I walked over to him and grabbed his throat and threatened to punch him out if he did not stop his verbal abuse : I feel vindicated!
Michael Toohey
ALSO: regarding his Grave it is now marked with a plaque saying "REVEREND BROTHER" etc.., it's at Kemps Creek Catholic Lawn Cemetery and is now easily locatable.
Warren Mccahill
Posted on 23 Jul 2020 2:41 pm
I can only agree with all the comments here with the exception of Bradbury and Aton you guys are delusional. For all the things he done to us F you Richard
Steven
Posted on 26 Jul 2020 2:08 am
I have been to this particular Website over and over again, wondering just how many lives Brother Richard destroyed by abusing us, either it be physically or sexually. I can never ever get this vivid memory out of my head; we sat in the school bus, at the front where, 3 of us sat next to Brother Richard as he sat behind the steering wheel. It was me, Craig Campion and Michael Sims. We all went to Granville Patrician Brothers. The year was 1982/1983 and we were in grades 5 and 6. Richard molested us by putting his hand in our pants, playing with our penis, whilst we sat next to him. We all played in the same rugby league team and it happened at Granville Park. I never ever spoke about this to anyone nor did I even speak to my friends about it. I don’t know why, I can’t explain why. But it happened. Also my mum and dad once went to Douglas Park, whilst I was at the retreat. My mum for some reason turned up in the middle of me and my class mates naked at the shower block. I remember my mum was furious and screaming at Brother Richard and the teachers, saying why are you looking at these boys all naked. My mum took me straight home. I didn’t stay at the retreat for the 3 days. Brother Richard was a horrible man. And yes his dog had fleas and was ugly. And he did hit us with his leather strap. 6 of the best. My hand swelled up and like another student stated we would put it on the steel leg of the desk just to cool it down. Let’s not forget Sister Agnes who pulled my hair and what about Brother Basil, a psycho who hit us with his hands and elbows. Another horrible old man. I was probably the smallest child always in my form and what could I do.
Brandon Chant
Posted on 27 Apr 2010 6:51 pm
I find it so strange when I read such glorified and positive comments about Brother Richard. He was my school principal at Patrician Brothers Granville in 1985 and 1986. He was also my english teacher in Year 6.
I found Brother Richard to be a brute of a man, always accompanied by his flea-ridden mut (Suzie I believe it was called), who assaulted myself and many other students on a regular basis with his rubber strap. I remember living in absolute fear of him. I remember clearly being brutalised by him on many occasions - once for spelling the work "inclusive" incorrectly.
I also remember him lining us all up naked in the group shower at school camp in 1985, and repeating over and over in his Irish accent "Isn't it beautiful boys."
What I have written above I swear to be the truth, and would gladly swear the above in front of a court and on a lie detector test.
The man was a pig, and I am so glad he has left this world.
So whilst you glorify him, I detest him, his memory, and the evil actions he visited on us "boys". What a hideous start to our lives and a detestable introduction to the Patrician Brothers.
So let's remember him how he ACTUALLY was, shall we?