Abuse Law – Institutions – Boystown Beaudesert QLD

Boystown Beaudesert has been said to be the most horrific case of systematic and mass child abuse ever to be uncovered in Australia. The below information is a brief overlook of the history of abuse uncovered over the years.  

It wasn’t until 1997 that the first complaint was made to the De La Salle Brothers by a survivor of sexual abuse at Boystown Beaudesert.  

In 1999, whilst Boystown Beaudesert was still operating, the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions’ final report provided on page 75: 

Complaints of excessive corporal punishment at BoysTown emerged from both the evidence of witnesses and departmental files. Other witnesses described the use of certain boys (through the Alderman system) to maintain control through a combination of peer pressure, intimidation and physical assault, and the Friday night ‘biffups’, or boxing matches, which were perceived as punishment. Boys with no boxing skills were forced into the ring with bigger boys who were obliged to keep punching until the Director chose to stop the fight. 

Page 77 of the inquiry’s final report provides that there was criticism of BoysTown Beaudesert in the 1970s by departmental child care officers, who commented on Boystown’s “preoccupation with conformity, its degree of regimentation, and the general reluctance on the part of staff to deal with the social and emotional needs of the boys”. In 1978, government child care officers also raised concerns regarding the severe beatings and physical abuse of children at Boystown Beaudesert.  

Further in 1999, the Queensland Police Service launched a three year investigation into Boystown Beaudesert, in which two men were charged with 48 offences.  

In 2017, the first perpetrator of abuse at Boystown Beaudesert was convicted and imprisoned. Brother Francis Brophy was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for sexually abusing nine children at Boystown Beaudesert. Brother Francis Brophy abused one of the children under the guise of private guitar lessons.  

In 2018, Stephen Anthony Gray, a former social science teacher at Boystown Beaudesert, was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment after sexually abusing and preying on children at night whilst they were sleeping.  

Survivors have also reported that the Boystown Beaudesert Director, Brother Finbarr, regularly whipped and beat boys with a jockey whip.