The ex-student, "Roy", has told Broken Rites that he encountered Father Ayers while boarding at Salesian College ("Rupertswood"), in Sunbury, near Melbourne, between 1965 and 1967, when Roy was aged 12 to 13.

In return for receiving his out-of-court settlement, Roy signed a deed of release for the Salesians, preventing him from suing the Salesians in the civil courts for damages.

The deed of release shows Fr John Ayers' name as well as Roy's name.

Broken Rites has a copy of the settlement deed.

The priest's career

Father Jack Ayers, an Australian, has been in the Salesian order since the 1950s.

A Salesian document says that Fr John Ayers helped to open Salesian College at Chadstone (in Melbourne's south-east) in 1957, which had a staff of nine Salesians. In the early 1960s he was teaching at Salesian College in Brooklyn Park, Adelaide, South Australia. Later in the 1960s, the above mentioned student, "Roy", encountered Ayers at "Rupertswood" College, Melbourne.

In the 1970s, he was working at Boys Town, a Salesian home for disadvantaged boys, at Engadine, near Sydney.

In the 1988 edition of the annual Australian Catholic Directory, he was at Salesian College (a high school) in Brooklyn Park, South Australia.

In the 1990s, the Salesians transferred Ayers to their operations in the Pacific. At one stage, Fr Jack Ayers was located at the Moamoa Theological College in Samoa, along with another Australian priest, Fr Frank Klep. It is not known how long Ayers stayed in Samoa (the Salesians have operations in other parts of the Pacific).

In the mid-2010 edition of the Catholic Directory, Rev. John Ayers was still listed as being "currently overseas" but it is not known whether this claim is true or whether he could be in Australia.

Father John Ayers' surname, which rhymes with "apples and pears", has sometimes been mis-spelt as John "Ayres".

"Rupertswood" school

Roy says that the dormitories at Rupertswood were occupied by about 100 junior boys, partitioned at both ends by curtains behind which a Salesian Brother slept to maintain order. There were about 19 priests, brothers and lay brothers.

"It was a terrifying place for me," Roy says. "I have horrible memories of the main building, dark staircases, where the priests lived. If you found yourself on the second floor, you were in trouble."

Roy says that sexual abuse forced him to run away several times. He knew that could not tell anybody about the abuse, because Catholic priests had an image of being celibate and chaste and therefore (he thought) nobody would believe him. But the Salesians told his mother that he was an insolent boy.

In 2000, Roy decided to confront his past. He tackled the Salesian headquarters about the sexual abuse. The Salesians granted him his out-of-court settlement, thereby helping to protect the brand-name of Ruperstood as a "good" Catholic school.

Settlement

According to the deed, the Salesians deny liability but (the deed says) "in order to avoid the cost, expense and inconvenience of litigation, the parties to this deed have agreed to settle the claim."

More Broken Rites articles

• Father Frank Klep — jailed.
  
  
• Father Paul Raymond Evans — jailed.
  
  
• Father Julian Fox — now overseas.
  
  
• Brother Gregory Vincent Coffey (or Coffin) — convicted.