By a Broken Rites researcher

After action by Broken Rites Australia, the Melbourne Catholic archdiocese has been forced to admit that children were sexually abused by Father Thomas O'Keeffe. Broken Rites is doing further research on O'Keeffe — and how the church sheltered him during his life of crime.

Thomas Francis O'Keeffe (his surname has also been spelt as O'Keefe) spent his priestly career in the Melbourne archdiocese. Broken Rites has researched his name in the annual editions of the Australian Catholic Directory. This confirms that his parishes (all within the Melbourne metropolitan area) included:

• Sandringham (Sacred Heart parish) until about 1965;
   
• Preston East (Holy name parish) and then St Kilda West (Sacred Heart parish) in the late 1960s;
   
• Brighton (St Joan of Arc parish) about 1969 (approx.);
   
• Doveton (Holy Family parish) in the early 1970s; and
   
• Thornbury (St Mary's parish) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

O'Keeffe (born in 1929) died in 1984.

Since Broken Rites became prominent in 1993, it has been contacted by three former parishioners of O'Keeffe who suffered serious sexual abuse when they were young boys in O'Keeffe's parishes. As O'Keeffe had died, it was no longer possible for the police to prosecute him. Broken Rites gave information to these victims about how to tackle the Melbourne church authorities with a view to obtaining justice.

Percival

“Percival” (born 1965) said he was sodomised by Father O’Keeffe at Doveton in the 1970s. Percival became a “difficult” child and his parents could not work out what was troubling him. His family doctor referred him to a psychiatric centre for assessment. In 2003, at the age of 37, Percival was seeing a counsellor at Victoria’s Centre Against Sexual Assault. Broken Rites advised Percival about ways of tackling the Melbourne archdiocese. Later the archdiocese accepted Percival's complaint and referred him to its compensation panel for a settlement.

Liam

“Liam” (born in 1960) encountered O’Keeffe at Doveton in the early 1970s when Liam was in Grade 6 at the parish school. He said:

“O’Keeffe used to invite kids to visit him in his presbytery He showed us pornographic magazines, with nude pictures of women. He told us dirty jokes, which I didn’t always understand at the time.

“He would drive two or three boys to the beach. Afterwards, we would go to his presbytery to change out of our swimming costumes and to have a shower. O’Keeffe would make the two or three boys get into the shower together and O’Keeffe would strip off and get into the shower with us. He would rub soap on the kids’ bodies, on the pretext of getting all the sand off.”

(Liam said that certain other things also happened but, he said, he was too embarrassed to tell Broken Rites about these things. He said he might be prepared to tell those things to a tribunal of inquiry.)

Peter

“Peter” who was an altar boy in the Doveton parish under O’Keeffe in the 1970s, told Broken Rites: “I was never touched physically by O’Keeffe but O’Keeffe used to show pornographic magazines to us boys.

“He ran cricket for all the boys of Holy Family school during school lunch and recesses as well as on Sundays after Mass. After matches we would go to the presbytery and have ice-creams and soft drink. Eventually, after he had established a rapport with us, he'd offer us some of his magazines -- all pornography. My older brothers also recall this. We never told our parents.

“After O’Keeffe moved to the Thornbury parish, he remained in contact with my family. He used to visit us in Doveton on Sunday nights. Often he'd bring new board games for me and my brothers. On a few occasions during school holidays my brothers and I (and a few other kids) would stay at O’Keeffe’s presbytery in Thornbury. We'd all see films, play sports and games. Porn magazines would be shown around in the evenings.

Furthermore

As well as Thomas O'Keeffe, several other sexually-abusive priests have been sent to the Doveton parish at various time, including:
Fr Wilfred Baker;
Fr Peter Searson; and
Fr Victor Rubeo.