All Saints Anglican Church Boys’ Choir

Rightside Legal has successfully represented clients who were abused as children in the All Saints Anglican Church Boys’ Choir in East St. Kilda.

This is an all-male choir consisting of boys from the age of seven and men that has existed since the mid-Nineteenth century.

Boys rehearse multiple times a week, separate to the men.  Boys and men came together for one rehearsal and Sunday services.

For nearly a century (1879 to 1970), the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne recruited boys into the choir from neighbouring schools including:

• Malvern Grammar School
• Caulfield Grammar School
• Wesley Grammar, and
• Haileybury College.

From around 1970, the Diocese expanded its recruitment strategy to include boys from nearby government and Catholic schools.

One abuser we know of was Mark Geoffrey Stevens, a caretaker, churchwarden and/or vestry member of the church, whose work included maintaining the grounds of All Saints Church, assisting in the administration of church affairs, and other secular affairs.

Geoffrey’s residence was a drop-in place where members of the Church’s boys choir would spend time outside of choir rehearsals.

Stevens was a member of the choir. He groomed and sexually abused a number of members of the boys choir during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

If you have any further information or you want legal advice in relation to the All Saints Anglican Church Boys’ Choir, please call 1300765702 or complete the confidential enquiry form below.