Gregory Vincent Coffey (also known by the surname Coffin) was a former Salesian turned Marist Brother born in 1948 and a notorious offender.
He was recruited by the Salesian religious order and trained for a year as a Salesian novitiate.
He taught religious education at Salesian College in Chadstone and at Rupertswood in Sunbury, and then changed his name to ‘Coffey’ and taught at St Mark’s College in Port Pirie in South Australia.
He was charged with child abuse in 1972 of a student at St Mark’s College, receiving a suspended jail term for this the same year.
Coffey then left the Salesian order but was quickly accepted by the Marist Brothers in 1972 to teach and be vice principal at Immaculate Heart College in Preston.
He was charged in 1994 in two different legal cases of offending against six boys at this school and plead guilty to all charges, but did not tell the court about his earlier 1972 conviction.
Coffey became the Immaculate Heart College school principal from 1980 until 1986, then taught at Loyola College in Watsonia for three years, and is then believed to have worked part time for the St John of God Brothers’ Churinga Centre looking after intellectually disabled young men, until his 1994 criminal cases.
Coffey pleaded guilty again for offending against two other boys from Immaculate Heart College in 1997.
Other victims came forward in the 2000s referencing abuse Coffey committed at Catholic Church’s Don Bosco Youth Camp at Safety Beach near Dromana, in 1968 and in 1976.
Further police investigations identified eleven new victims from Coffey’s time at Port Pirie, but Coffey died in October 2007 before justice could be done.
Even though Coffey is now deceased, if you suffered his abuse, you can still claim financial compensation for the distress and trauma he caused. And because he was such a prolific abuser, there may be children who were abused by this man who have not yet been compensated for the distress and trauma he caused.
If you have any further information or you want legal advice in relation to Gregory Vincent Coffey, please call 1300765702 or complete the confidential enquiry form below.
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