JANE* was possibly two years old when she was first sexually abused by a Catholic priest on an island off the coast of Wales in the 1970s, and 14 when she reported the abuse to a Newcastle Christian school deputy principal in 1988.
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It was only months after NSW Parliament enacted laws making school teachers mandatory reporters of alleged abuse to authorities.
The then St Philip's Christian College head of secondary school, Richard Rule, did not report the allegations to police or the teenager's parents. He told the teenager to pray instead.
"I was prayed for, told everyone is forgiven and that I don't need to speak of it again," said Jane, whose civil case against the priest's Cistercian order after a complaint in 2014 led another 21 victims to come forward, sparking calls in May for a public inquiry into the island where four convicted or accused child sex offenders have now been identified.
Mr Rule, who operates a number of Hunter child care centres, did not deny the teenager's disclosures in a February, 2017 statement that formed part of her claim against the Cistercians.
"I clearly recall (Jane) seeking me out to discuss a matter that she felt she needed to disclose. In the meeting (Jane) disclosed that she had been abused by a priest whilst living in Wales, in the UK prior to the family moving to Australia," Mr Rule wrote.
He did not respond to phone calls and emails from the Newcastle Herald.
Mr Rule was one of at least three prominent Christians in Wales and Australia who did not report allegations to police in the 1980s after children alleged abuse by priest Thaddeus Kotik on Caldey Island.
"Perhaps he felt that only God needed to hear my story, but actually it was the police who needed to hear it," Jane said.
"Mandatory reporting was put in place to educate teachers of that time that sexual abuse is a crime that must be reported. Instead my report was treated exactly like my own confession."
Kotik was a former soldier who fought in the Free Polish army during World War II, and moved to Caldey Island off the popular Welsh beachside resort town of Tenby in 1947.
He joined the strict Catholic Cistercian order that owns the island and Caldey Abbey, and was ordained a priest in 1956. He lived on the island until he died in 1992.
Jane's family spent holidays at Caldey in a cottage made available because of trade work by a relative at the abbey.
Photos show Kotik clutching a very young Jane and other children on his lap. In one photo when she was 11 Kotik's arms grip Jane around the chest.
That photo of the smiling priest controlling the girl he had sexually abused for years brings back memories Jane cannot bear to detail. Kotik gloried in his freedom to abuse in plain sight. In photo after photo children are held by him. In one he has a girl in each arm held firmly around the chest while they sit on a beach.
In chilling letters to Jane Kotik repeatedly refers to the young children in his care, or manoeuvred into situations with him.
"I have been working today in the children's playground," he wrote in one letter in 1983, when Jane was nine, before detailing contact with different young girls, including one he described as a "little fat angel who is very shy", another attracted to his garden gold fish pond to see the tortoises, and another described as a "very big girl".
In the letter he writes of how he will reunite with Jane's extended family during the holidays and talk until midnight when he would "put you to bed after 12 o'clock when you will be exhausted from listening to me".
Jane's parents were groomed by Kotik, she said.
He ingratiated himself to families, was given unexplained freedom by his order to "work outside the monastery with some people I love so much", and played the trusted Catholic priest who was always available to look after children over the summer holidays to give their parents a break.
"Father Thaddeus was an expert at isolating the children in the family from the adults to carry out the abuse," Jane said in a complaint to the Caldey Abbey abbot in February, 2014 that led to six women receiving settlements from the Cistercians.
"He was also an expert in knowing how to threaten, frighten and shame the children into keeping his disgusting behaviour a secret."
In response to Jane's letter Abbot Daniel van Santvoort said Kotik was "very seriously reprimanded in the 1980s and banned from visiting guests and islanders ever again". He was not reported to police before he died in 1992.
Jane was enrolled at St Philip's Christian College at Waratah after her family moved to Australia in 1985 and settled in Newcastle. It was three years after the school was established by its current existing principal Graeme Irwin, supported by Mr Rule.
Jane disclosed the abuse to Mr Rule in 1988.
"I was really struggling with a lot of fear. Everyone was starting to become interested in boyfriends and there were radical and frightening lessons from my school about the moral dangers of sex before marriage," Jane said.
"It was all beginning to come clear that what had happened on the island was really bad and really wrong and I wanted to be saved from hell. I wanted someone to say 'It's not your fault' and I wanted to feel better."
She didn't tell her parents about the years of serious sexual abuse or that she had told Mr Rule.
"I never spoke to my parents about this topic. I couldn't. Mr Rule was that needed one step away from the family. He also led us very regularly in prayer and chapel so I had a lot of respect for him. I believed he was in direct contact with God and I thought he would know exactly what to do to make things right. I wanted him to tell us what to do next."
In Wales at the same time two other girls reported abuse by Kotik to the abbey.
In her first email to the abbey in 2014 Jane said the impact of the abuse on her life had been "quietly catastrophic".
"I don't know exactly when the abuse began, only because I don't have a memory at Caldey that did not include sexual abuse," she wrote.
Jane contacted the abbey in part because of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which confirmed the extent of sexual abuse in churches.
"I realised people were beginning to talk about these taboo topics and they weren't being burnt at the stake. I turned 40 and I knew it was time. It had been brewing forever," she said.
Jane and five other women were forced to accept a settlement from the Cistercians after their legal case stalled on a United Kingdom requirement that people sexually abused as children report the abuse and lodge their claim before they turn 21.
Jane first contacted St Philip's Christian College in 2014, and attempted to obtain confirmation she had reported the abuse to the deputy principal.
In an email to Graeme Irwin in January, 2015 Jane's partner said Mr Rule "should have taken the appropriate action after being advised of this heinous crime... the school should have contacted the police and her parents".
He emailed Mr Irwin again in February.
"I am writing this email to you in the hope of again helping you, your board and your legal representatives to properly understand the reasons for (Jane) seeking compensation from St Philip's. (Jane) is and has always been most anxious about being fair, honest and reasonable," Jane's partner wrote.
"This is all she expects in return. I write this letter to you without prejudice and in the hope, again, of moving things forward. I also attach an email I sent to you over four years ago, with the same hopes, albeit to no avail.
"(Jane) has been in correspondence with you for around 5 years, both through email and in person. It is common knowledge that living through the process of seeking redress is gruelling and extremely stressful.
"So far the long delay, waiting for a meaningful response from St Philip's, has caused collateral damage.
"No one is suggesting (Jane) was sexually abused at St Philip's. No one is suggesting the school is responsible for the abuse that took place on the island. The school is responsible for not reporting it."
In response to questions Graeme Irwin said St Philip's Christian College was "aware of this claim and takes the issues surrounding child abuse seriously".
"The abuse suffered by this former student in Wales prior to immigrating to Australia, and enrolling in the College, was terrible and the claim made by this former student against the College regarding her disclosure is being investigated," Mr Irwin said.
"Our lawyers have been working together with, and currently await further information from, the former student's lawyers to progress the claim to a mutually acceptable outcome."
A Department of Education spokesperson said all public schools and public school teachers in NSW were formally advised of their mandatory reporting obligations after new legislation in 1987. Teachers received a booklet, Responding to Child Sexual Assault: Guidelines for Teachers, which "clearly set out their mandatory responsibilities for reporting child sexual assault", the spokesperson said.
There was targeted training for principals, school counsellors and a teacher representative from each school, followed by in-school training for all deputy principals and teachers.
A department spokesperson said it did not hold information about how non-government schools and teachers were informed of the new obligations.
The Australian Association of Christian Schools, chaired by Mr Irwin, referred questions about how non-government schools were informed in 1987 to the Association of Independent Schools NSW. It did not respond to questions about the roll-out.
Jane is not her real name.
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