“So if I was to say anything to them they would have been shocked ... [It] would have been a clash with their faith and you know, and a conflict between wanting to help me and their belief in the church,” the victim had told the court.
“Also I didn’t want to get into trouble if I’d said something and then, you know, the school didn’t believe me, you know, they could have expelled me.”
The man said that if his parents did believe him, they might have taken him out of the well-regarded school, which they wanted him to attend.
“They struggled, you know, to pay the fees but they wanted – it was regarded as the best Catholic private school, so they wanted me to stay there and I was aware of that,” he said.
“And I didn’t want to get Brother Leonard into trouble as well because I, you know, was friendly with him and apart from the abuse I liked him. So all these things were going around in my head.”
Bourke said child sex offences have profound and deleterious effects on victims for many years, if not the whole of their lives.
“The offences involved a terrible, and no doubt confusing and humiliating invasion of the victim’s privacy and physical and emotional safety,” he said.
Leonard began his priesthood studies as a novitiate in August 1962, and worked at Riverview from 1968 to 1984.
He left teaching some years after the offending and lived in Victoria as a priest, including serving as spiritual director at the Corpus Christi seminary in Melbourne.
Bourke said Leonard, who has significant health issues and has been living in an aged care home, has shown no remorse due to maintaining his innocence.
When considering his lack of criminal history, age and health issues, Bourke considered his risk of re-offending was low.
Leonard was convicted of two counts of indecent assault on a male person under the now repealed Crimes Act 1900, which has a maximum penalty of five years’ jail.
Those crimes have been replaced by new offences, which would have a maximum penalty of 20 years if committed today.
Leonard will be eligible for parole on November 26.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.