Student felt 'betrayed' by church after abuse by ex-St Edmund's College teacher

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.

A teacher at a Canberra college who sexually violated a student four decades ago had already indecently assaulted one child and went on to rape a third.

On Wednesday (27 February), 82-year-old John Vincent Roberts was sentenced to two years and eight months’ jail, to be suspended once he spent 12 months behind bars, over the abuse he inflicted in the early 1980s against his second victim.

In 1982 and 1983, he was in his 40s and worked as a drama teacher at St Edmund’s College, the ACT Supreme Court heard.

The college was a boy’s school run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers at the time, while Roberts was a member of the congregation who lived at the school’s accommodation.

He began to befriend the victim-survivor when the boy was 15, showing him favouritism over other students, and eventually offered to teach the boy to drive outside of school hours, knowing he was legally not old enough to drive.

Roberts then indecently assaulted the boy in the car during six driving lessons, after driving him to an isolated location near Corin Dam.

The assaults included showing the boy pornography, performing sex acts in front of him and sexually touching the boy’s body. He also asked the boy to perform sex acts, but he declined.

Each time, the boy felt he couldn’t get out of the car and leave, given the distance back to Canberra and that it was getting dark.

“The victim felt petrified during the offending and froze,” Acting Justice Rebecca Christensen SC said.

“He felt like no one would believe him if he told them what was happening.

“[Roberts] abused his position as a teacher, and as someone who was meant to assist the victim in building his life, rather than destroy it.”

The survivor reported the abuse to the ACT-NSW Catholic Church Professional Standards Unit in 2004 and received letters of apology from a Christian Brother and Roberts himself.

“I convey my apology and regret in respect of all hurt and harm suffered to you as a result of my actions,” Roberts wrote to him.

He went to ACT Policing in 2017, but Roberts was not summonsed to court until 2024 as he had been spending time in custody over other offences.

In 1994, he was sentenced for two counts of indecent assault on a male student relating to when he was a teacher at a college in Sydney in 1976.

He was allowed to continue teaching after he was convicted, but only with adults.

Then in 2016, the Wollongong District Court sentenced him for repeatedly sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in 1989. The boy was a student at a school where he had been teaching and the offences included rape.

He was handed 10 years’ jail and was released on parole in 2022 after serving six.

Roberts pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault on a male over the abuse he inflicted in the early 1980s.

Acting Justice Christensen said the impacts on the survivor have not only been from Roberts’ conduct, but also from the response he experienced after coming forward.

“[B]etrayed by not only the Catholic Church, but the very people who were supposed to help me cope and deal with this,” the survivor said.

“I was treated like a criminal, interrogated and made to feel I was the one with issues and I needed to be treated.”

Roberts remains a member of the Christian Congregation and, due to health issues, has a likely life expectancy of two-and-a-half years.

He will be released from custody in February 2026.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.