Scott grew up in Newcastle and attended St Joseph’s primary school at The Junction, an inner-city suburb of Newcastle. In the 1970s as a bright but socially disadvantaged nine year old, he became an altar boy at St Joseph’s parish and came under the influence of Vincent Ryan, a notorious paedophile priest whose sexual abuse of children was known by the local bishop and some teachers and yet who continued to work across parishes and schools in the area for over twenty years before his arrest in 1995.  Scott documents the personal challenges that continued into his adult life, and in 1995 after attending a funeral of a school friend, Scott decided to report his abuse to the police. Together with his friend, Gerard McDonald who was also abused by Ryan, they began to consider that the suicide deaths of classmates were possibly related to the sexual abuse of children in Newcastle Catholic schools. Scott went to court but was shattered when Ryan received such short sentences for the sexual abuse of children. Scott gave evidence at the Royal Commission in case study 43 and he and his wife Wendy remain committed to speaking out about the continuing injustices that victims experience in dealing with the Church in seeking justice.

Content warning and Ethics

The content in the following interviews contains distressing accounts of childhood sexual abuse. If you experience distress, please reach out for help:

1800 RESPECT: 24 hour phone support 1800 737732

LIFELINE: 24 hour phone support 13 11 14

BLUEKNOT Help Line: 9am-5pm phone support  1300 657 380

KIDS HELPLINE: 24 hour phone support 1800 551 800

RAPE CRISIS CENTRE 24 hour phone support 1800 424 017

The Survivor Story Project is funded by the Marist Brothers Australia in conjunction with its aim to engage in restorative justice processes for survivors of child sexual abuse in Marist schools in Australia. The Survivor Story Project has ethics approval from the University of Newcastle Australia, ethics approval reference number: H-2019-0195

The names of the participating survivors are their own except for CQT who opted to use a pseudonym.