The legal action is aimed at several defendants, including:

• the trustees of the Christian Brothers;
  
• two former managers and operators of the school which the student attended; and
  
• a former headmaster who was in the school administration when the alleged incidents occurred.

Broken Rites knows the name of the legal firm. The firm expects that, in view of this civil action, other victims of Brother Gladwin might come forward to obtain justice. As Gladwin is dead, the only avenue for victims to obtain justice now is through civil action.

Brother J.G. Gladwin belonged to the Queensland province of the Christian Brothers but left the Order by the late 1970s.

A school magazine from one of his schools has a staff photograph that includes "Brother J.G. Gladwin". According to one source, his first initial, J, stands for John Gladwin. On joining the Order, Christian Brothers used to adopt a new middle name (and a new middle initial). Thus, he became "Brother Gerard Gladwin".

In 1998, Queensland detectives were ready to prosecute Gladwin for committing sexual offences against schoolboys while he worked as a Christian Brother in Queensland in the 1960s and '70s. But in November 1998, before criminal court proceedings could begin, Gladwin (aged 65) was found dead, gassed in his car on an isolated bush road on the edge of Brisbane Forest Park (on Brisbane's northern outskirts). He left a suicide note. Thus, he avoided the criminal justice process.

In 1998, police sources told the media that Gladwin had recently been interviewed by detectives from Taskforce Argos (which investigates child-sex offenders) concerning offences allegedly committed in the 1960s.

During his time in the Christian Brothers, Brother J.G. Gladwin's schools included (this may not be a complete list):

• St Brendan's College, Yeppoon, 1956;

• a school in Gympie (north of Brisbane) between 1957 and 1962;

• St Mary's College, Toowoomba, in the 1960s;

• St Joseph's, Gregory Terrace, Brisbane, in the late 1960s;

• St Joseph's, Nudgee, Brisbane, in the early 1970s; and

• St Columban's boys' school, Brisbane, in the mid 1970s.

Broken Rites does not know whether "Drew" is involved in the current civil action.

Broken Rites has also been contacted in 2011 by another ex-pupil of Nudgee College and in 2010 by a family whose son attended St Mary's College, Toowoomba.

• Article posted 7 May 2011.