A Marist brother jailed for the third time over historical child sexual abuse will serve 20 days in prison before he is freed into the community due to old age and declining health.
Gerard McNamara, 86, was jailed for 36 months with 31 months suspended on Thursday, meaning he will spend five months in custody.
But having already spent 132 days on remand awaiting his sentence, the child abuser Marist brother will be released in about 20 days.
A jury in April found him guilty on seven charges of committing indecent acts on a child under 16 years old.
McNamara was afforded significant respect as a Marist brother and was working as a counsellor at a Gippsland Catholic school in the 1990s.
But under the cover of his job, he identified and preyed on a bright young student.
In 1995, a male student in his early high-school years was caught with cigarettes.
After being sent to the principal’s office and informed his father would be called, the student became distressed and disclosed he had been physically abused at home.
The school told the boy police would need to be called over his claim.
McNamara took the boy back to his office and said police must be called unless he let him examine the boy for physical signs of abuse.
Fearing his father would be reported to authorities, he agreed.
After stripping the boy, McNamara ran his hands over the boy's body and began sexually abusing him.
He took pictures, telling the boy it was to prove he wasn't hurt.
The counsellor left the boy in his office before returning later and abused him again.
On another occasion, the student told a teacher he couldn't run in a sport event because of an injury.
McNamara overheard this and said he could fix the issue through massage before sexually touching him during the process.
After getting into a fight with another student at school, McNamara took the victim to his office, telling him the other student wanted him charged over the fight.
McNamara again sexually abused him and the boy was suspended from school over the fight.
While the sexual abuse was initially opportunistic, County Court Judge Kate Hawkins said McNamara had manipulated the victim.
"The student was succeeding academically and on the sporting field," she said on Thursday.
"Your offending devastated his budding confidence.
"He felt like he was treated like a piece of meat and didn't feel safe at school."
The judge said McNamara violated the trust of his student and found he had no remorse, telling police he couldn't remember his victim.
McNamara's defence team argued a prison sentence posed serious risk to his health, particularly his declining kidney function.
The judge accepted McNamara’s age, health, the 30-year time gap since his offending were mitigating factors, as was his lack of access to children from being on the sex offender registry for life.
McNamara previously pleaded guilty to abusing 19 victims and was previously jailed for nine months in 2018 for abusing students at St Paul's Secondary College.
He was sentenced to seven months in 2020 for the abuse of more students between 1970 and 1975.
McNamara was previously sentenced in 2005 and 2016 for sexual assaults against other children at the college, and both times he received suspended prison terms.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
