Our Projects

Can you help?

In representing our clients, Rightside Legal leaves no stone unturned. Our legal team painstakingly builds the strongest possible claim.

This involves a huge number of documents (statements, police files, Royal Commission material).

It also involves trying to identify and speak with witnesses who may have information about the abuse perpetrated by priests, church officials, teachers, cub/scout leaders and others.

Sometimes we can find witnesses through our clients or their former school communities, church congregations or through other contacts. Other times we cast the net a little wider. Occasionally we will advertise for information about an abuser, a school, a church or another institution.

Members of the public can be incredibly helpful in adding crucial details about abusers and their behaviours to make our clients’ claims successful.

Below are some of our current projects in representing particular clients or groups of clients.

Jack Digney Thomas – multiple Victorian Government schools

Rightside Legal is currently representing adults who were abused as children by former teacher and principal, Jack Digney Thomas.

Thomas (now deceased) worked as a teacher and principal in Victorian Government schools for 38 years, starting in 1951. Allegations of abuse against Thomas started in the 1960s, where he taught at the Mildura and Wodonga Technical Schools.

In Wodonga, rumours had begun about Thomas’s abuse before he left.

Thomas moved on to work at Oakleigh Technical School (including as principal) between 1974 and 1986.

Sadly, the Victorian Education Department ignored multiple reports of child sexual abuse by Thomas, enabling him to continue his abuse. He was moved by the department to Ballarat Technical School between July 1986 and 19 October 1986, then moved on to the Portland Technical School (20 October 1986 to 31 December 1986), Collingwood Technical School (1987) and Cranbourne Meadows Technical School (1988).

Read more here.

If you have any further information about Jack Thomas, please call 1300 765 702 or complete the confidential form below.

John Patrick Coogan – Government and Catholic schools around Geelong

Rightside Legal is currently representing a number of clients abused by former Geelong teacher John Patrick “Jack” Coogan.

Coogan (now deceased) was convicted of sexually assaulting many Geelong students. In fact, he abused multiple boys aged 10 to 15 across decades in the Geelong region.

He worked as a physical education teacher at Government schools from 1962 to 1973 before moving into the Catholic system.

Schools he taught at include:

• St Jospeh’s College
• North Geelong High
• Bell Park High School

Read more.

If you have any information about John Coogan’s offending – especially in the Government system – please call 1300 765 702 or complete the confidential form below.

William Stuart Landman – Chelsea Primary School

Rightside Legal is working for students who attended Chelsea Primary School in the 1970s.

The Principal was William Stuart Landman a repeat offender who was convicted of many crimes against students in 1978.

Landman died more than a decade ago, but was employed by the Victorian Education Department for more than 40 years.

Landman’s long involvement in teaching and his repeated abuse of students has been covered extensively by the ABC’s Russell Jackson. The coverage can be read here.

If you have any information about Landman or Chelsea Primary School we’d be very grateful to hear from you.

All information will be treated confidentially.

Please contact us on 1300 765 702 or via the form below.

Full article from the ABC News can be found here as well.

Richard George Ross – Braybrook Primary School

Rightside Legal is currently representing a number of clients abused by former principal of Braybrook Primary School, Richard George Ross.

Ross was principal at Braybrook from 1969 until 1989, when he was charged with sexual offending against children.

During the course of the police investigation, police uncovered more than 3,000 slides of naked and semi-naked children, dating back 10 years, as well as over 100 rolls of unexposed film hidden in his office at Braybrook Primary School.

In 1990, Ross pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy.  He was given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to do community service.

Ross would invite students of the school to work with him in the school garden on weekend, and then take some of them into the school’s darkroom and have them pose for photographs in varying states of undress, in exchange for cash.  He also took some children on overseas trips, at his expense.

Prior to his posting at Braybrook Primary School, Ross taught at schools in:

• Pullut
• Glenmore
• South Caulfield
• North Williamstown, and
• Sunshine East.

Rightside Legal is also aware of allegations of abuse by Ross during his time at Sunshine East Primary School.

At the time of his death,  Ross was being investigated in relation to a number of other reports of sexual abuse alleged to have occurred between 1963-1982.

Read more here.

If you have any information about Ross or Braybrook Primary School we’d be very grateful to hear from you.

All information will be treated confidentially.

Please contact us on 1300 765 702 or via the form below.