St. Alipius Primary School

Rightside Legal has successfully represented a number of clients who were abused as children at Ballarat’s St. Alipius Primary School by a range of offenders.

This boys’ primary school in Ballarat, operated by the Christian Brothers order of the Catholic Church, was a nest of paedophiles across several decades in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

In 2015 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that in 1971, all male teachers and the chaplain at the St Alipius primary school were abusing children.

Tragically, from one grade four class at St. Alipius in the 1970s, 12 of 33 boys have gone on to end their own lives.

One of the chief offenders at the school was Brother Gerald Fitzgerald, who taught at St. Alipius for 13 years.

He taught Grade 3 at St Alipius and over his time there sexually and physically abused numerous young boys.  He had a terrifying temper and would hit and punch boys, slam their heads in their desks, box their ears and electrocute them.

He would then often take those very same boys and sit them on his lap during class and kiss, fondle and molest them. He brought groups of young boys swimming to a nearby creek where he would watch them change and swim naked.

He was finally made to retire from St Alipius in 1975.

Another well-known offender from that time at St. Alipius was Stephen Francis Farrell.

If you have any further information or you want legal advice in relation to abuse suffered at St. Alipius, please call 1300765702 or complete the confidential enquiry form below.