MANKY MOLESTOR MUNDINE! Indigenous leader and Catholic Church chief Graeme Mundine unmasked as paedophile rapist while family, church, media & politicians all stay silent

EXCLUSIVE: He is a senior member of one of the nation’s most famous Aboriginal families, and is widely considered to be one of Australia’s most powerful Indigenous and Catholic advocacy leaders, as well as a ‘good guy’. But just last week, Graeme Mundine, was unmasked as a prolific and dangerous paedophile after being found guilty and sentenced for assaulting five young boys over a period of five years. It’s undoubtedly a major story of great relevance but one that, for some reason, has so far been ignored by the country’s media and political class, and almost everybody else too. Our publisher, Serkan Ozturk, digs deeper.

One of eleven children, 58-year-old Graeme Mundine is a Bundjalung man born in the northern NSW town of Grafton, and raised in Sydney’s west, who would go on to do great things for his own community and the Australian public. Indeed, just like so many other members of his illustrious family. But behind all those good works and deeds, Mundine was for decades hiding a terrible secret.

Last Wednesday, on December 12, the mask of erudite civility and passionate advocacy for the vulnerable that had been a hallmark of Mundine’s life came slipping away in the not-too-refined surroundings of the Campbelltown District Court.

In its place, his true character was revealed: a manipulative paedophile and child sexual abuser who has spent the last four decades of his life hiding as the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.

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With two of his brothers and wife in attendance at court, Mundine was sentenced over a number of historic sex offences to have taken place in the 1980s. One of the offences took place as late as 1988.

He was found guilty of four charges of indecent assault, three charges of assault, as well as an act of indecency involving five student victims, all under the age of 16. The offences occurred at St Gregory’s College and at the Marist Brothers College in Pagewood while Mundine was employed as a teacher.

During the sentencing, the presiding judge in the case, District Court judge Chris O’Brien, somewhat strangely claimed Mundine had “besmirched the reputation of the religious order and the men who followed in his footsteps”. A slightly bizarre thing to say by the judge, in our own view, as it is now open knowledge that a semi-organised paedophile ring operated amongst Mundine’s colleagues across several schools run by the Marist Brothers during the era. It might be more honest to say that Mundine was largely replicating the criminal actions of his teaching colleagues and their Church superiors who simply shunted them around when there was too much heat. As an interesting aside, Judge O’Brien is a former student of the Marist Brothers, having attended several of their schools during his youth.

Nevertheless, Judge O’Brien found Mundine had committed a gross breach of trust and abuse of power.

“The offender took advantage of the naivety and vulnerability of the victims,” Judge O’Brien is reported to have said during sentencing.

“Disturbingly the events occurred when the victim was seeking guidance or support and was instead met with sexual abuse.

“The victim impact statements were both powerful and moving.

“There is no doubt these events have had a significant affect on their lives.”

However, despite the stern words from Judge O’Brien, the legal system / industry of which the judge is a member of found it fit to sentence Mundine to only three years imprisonment, with the former teacher up for parole as early as in 18 months. That was in spite of Mundine being found to have committed prolonged offences relating to five male victims over a five year period.

It seems Judge O’Brien afforded some leniency to Mundine on the basis he had done many good works as an Indigenous leader in the years following the assaults and had in his view seemingly not offended for the last three decades and more. In contrast to the good judge, True Crime News Weekly suggests Mundine’s life choices over the last few decades, detailed below, have been the actions of someone who, at the very least, has done his best to remain close with opportunities to the temptations of child sexual abuse.

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The youngest child of famed Aboriginal icon, Roy Mundine, Graeme Mundine is the brother of former Labor Party national president turned Liberal stooge, Warren Mundine, and is the first cousin of Tony Mundine, the boxing trainer and father of controversial, recently retired trash-talking footballer and boxer, Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine.

Having been educated by Marist Brothers, Graeme would himself eventually become a Marist Brother after leaving school, before getting involved in youth work and then teaching at a number of schools.

“It’s mum’s side of the family …. who brought the Catholic influence,” Mundine revealed in a radio interview in 2013.

“Dad had to convert … she was a die-hard Catholic.”

Mundine would teach for eight years, including at St Gregory’s College in Sydney’s west, as well as at Marist College Pagewood in the city’s east, which in 2014, was rebranded as Champagnat Catholic College Pagewood, perhaps partly in a bid to get away from its unsavoury past and connections.

“Then I went to [work with] post-school youth and worked down in Mittagong,” Mundine told the ABC in a feature-length radio profile in 2013.

He was a Marist Brother for 20 years in total, and only left the Christian order when he met his now-wife and married her. She was reportedly left in tears in the court room upon hearing Judge O’Brien’s sentencing remarks dooming her husband to jail last week.

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Mundine would then embark for Canberra in the 1990s and a life in religious advocacy and lobbying, where he would initially land as the inaugural Chair and Executive Officer of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC). In the role, Mundine was expected to represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander views to the Catholic hierarchy and the public.

One of his tasks was as co-author of the Catholic Church’s response to the Bringing them Home Report on the Stolen Generations. The Church was one of the chief culprits involved in robbing Aboriginal children of their families and culture for decades and was forced to apologise in 1996. Pope John Paul II also delivered a specific apology to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in 2001 for the church’s role in perpetuating the Australian government’s system of forced removals of Indigenous children. Many of the stolen children were also sexually abused.

Meanwhile, Mundine would go on to other roles with the Catholic Church; first as chief of NATSIEC, which is the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission, within the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA). And then as the Executive Officer of the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

In 2007, as part of his role with the church, Mundine was in charge of the ‘Make Indigenous Poverty History’ campaign.

In 2012, he would help launch the book, A Decision to Discriminate, alongside journalist Jeff McMullen. The book takes a close and critical look at the introduction of the Stronger Futures legislation following the NT Intervention forced upon Indigenous communities in the Top End by the Howard Government in 2007.

During his speech at the event in Sydney’s inner-west, Mundine took the time to publicly announce his own personal opposition to child sexual abuse.

“The Government often justifies the Intervention by claiming the women are in favour of it. Those of us who criticise the Government over its actions are accused of not listening to the women, or even of supporting domestic violence or child abuse. I reject that outright,” he told the audience at the time.

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“I have no doubt that for some people there have been some improvements in life. I would certainly hope so with the amount of resources and spending that has gone into the place. But to suggest that those who don’t agree with the Government line are colluding with abusers is just outrageous.”

By 2013, Mundine was a founding board member of Jarjum College in Redfern. It’s a Jesuit primary school for disadvantaged Aboriginal set up by the wealthy private boys’ school St Aloysius College.

According to the school’s website, the mission of the school is to:

“Educate urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are not participating or coping in mainstream primary schools as a result of their domestic circumstances. It will serve boys and girls aged between 4 and 13 from Kindergarten to Year 6 and fees will not be charged for tuition,” the website reads.

“The aims are to, among other things, alleviate the social, emotional, behavioural and health disadvantages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children so that they can return to mainstream schooling, and to provide opportunities for them to pursue secondary education.”

The school’s patron is none other than the nation’s newly announced Governor General, the retired military man, David Hurley – who is currently serving as NSW’s Governor.

The school did not wish to comment when approached by True Crime News Weekly this week. We had asked as to whether they were worried there may be further victims, considering Mundine’s positioning as an inaugural board member of the school. During his sentencing last week, the judge had alluded to the fact Mundine has particularly targeted vulnerable children seeking extra guidance and support.

The Catholic Church also refused to comment when approached this week.

Prior to his sentencing, Mundine had quietly tried to remove traces of his digital footprint by shutting down his personal website as well as his social media accounts.

* * * * *

Though it has now been over a week since Mundine’s conviction and sentencing, an eerie silence continues to greet the facts of the matter.

It remains unclear as to why the nationally significant and serious court findings against Mundine have yet to rate a mention across the country’s media, or condemned by just about anybody in a position of influence or authority.

Mundine’s sentencing has only been reported as a short court report and syndicated in a couple of barely read Nine-owned (formerly Fairfax) suburban titles in Western Sydney.

The court report skirts around who Mundine is, and doesn’t mention any of the prominent positions he has held and only mentions in passing that he is an “indigenous leader”. The headline doesn’t mention Mundine by name nor his senior positions as an advocate and lobbyist for Indigenous and Catholic causes.

The only other passing mention of Mundine’s heinous crimes is in a couple of Nine-owned, minor regional newspapers. Only one sentence in total is devoted at the very end of an article about one of Mundine’s former teaching colleagues, Ross Francis Murrin, also being found guilty, once again, of serious sex offences against underage boys.

“Another former St Gregorys College dorm master, Marist brother and teacher, Graeme Mundine, 58, was also sentenced for historic sex offences in Campbelltown District Court this week,” a Camden Advertiser article on December 14 only states.

Sources have suggested to True Crime News Weekly that a semi-organised paedophile ring operated amongst some of the Marist Brothers at St Gregory’s College and elsewhere at the time, including Marist Brothers Pagewood.

Curiously, despite the usual glee they receive from kicking and belittling members of the country’s Indigenous community, News Corp media titles and publications across the country have chosen to remain silent on Mundine’s arrest and conviction. Does that have anything to do with Warren Mundine’s loud recent support for conservative causes championed by the likes of Rita Panahi, Andrew Bolt and the IPA? Or, with the recent offer from the Liberal Party for Warren Mundine to run as a candidate for their sick, twisted and hypocritical party?

As far as True Crime News Weekly is aware, prominent members of Mundine’s family have so far refused to publicly condemn Mundine’s crimes, or even say anything about them at all.

We contacted Mundine’s older brother, Warren Mundine, seeking comment this week but we did not receive a response.

While Warren Mundine did not wish to speak with True Crime News Weekly, we did note that he has been very busy on Twitter posting all kinds of News Corp related culture wars items over the past week, but as far as we can tell has not made one mention of the serious matters involving his own brother.

We as well contacted Mundine’s other brother, Philip Mundine, who is connected to the NSW Aboriginal Land Council – which is the state’s peak representative body for Aboriginal affairs.

We did not receive a comment from either Philip Mundine or on behalf of the Land Council.

“We appreciate you giving us the opportunity but we have no comment to make regarding this story,” a spokesperson for the Land Council only stated.

Other Indigenous leaders have also so far publicly remained silent.

The nation’s leading Indigenous media network, NITV, has seemingly also happened to ignore the story. One, again, wonders why?

Just as strange, not a word has been reported by the nation’s publicly funded broadcaster, the ABC, despite Mundine being a sometime guest over the years.

Bemusingly, not one article had been published prior to Mundine’s sentencing last week to even indicate the powerful advocate had been arrested on such serious charges. Not. One. Article. Anywhere. At. All.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is how media censorship works. When important stories on powerful people aren’t covered in the due depth and detail they truly deserve because of elite political and media connections.

Indeed, sources have informed True Crime News Weekly that it is likely many who count themselves as members of the nation’s Aboriginal communities are still unaware of Mundine’s criminal actions and his long-term offending against boys.

Is this not a travesty? Do these people not deserve to be properly informed about someone who has taken advantage of them? In short, this is a shocking dereliction of duties by the nation’s media.

Political leaders with links to Mundine have as well stayed dead silent about the convictions.

Matt Thistlethwaite is the local federal sitting Labor MP for the electorate of Kingsford-Smith in Sydney’s south-east where Marist College Pagewood is located.

Coincidentally, he also happened to attend Marist College Pagewood as a student at the same time Mr Mundine was present there teaching, and offending.

Indeed, Thistlethwaite would end up being named school captain in 1990.

He also sits on the school’s current Advisory Board.

Also on the school’s Advisory Board sits new NSW Labor leader, Michael Daley. The Maroubra MP only recently got the gig as the state’s opposition leader following the resignation of Luke Foley after he was outed as a drunken sexual harasser of female journalists.

True Crime News Weekly contacted both Thisthlethwaite and Daley seeking comment on Mundine’s conviction and sentencing.

We did not receive a reply from either of the senior Labor politicians.

Two years ago, Labor MP Stephen Jones, whose electorate of Whitlam sits south of Sydney, emotionally admitted that as school captain of Wollongong’s Edmund Rice College, he and other students were aware that the school run by the Marist Brothers was a “dumping ground” for known paedophiles and child sexual abusers in the 1980s.

“There was a whole bunch of them [paedophiles] at the time I was there,” Mr Jones, who graduated from the school in 1983, told the Illawarra Mercury in June 2016.

“Boys would [avoid them] in all sorts of ways.

“We would just talk amongst ourselves about it – ‘don’t get caught with this person or that person.'”

Would the deafening silence over Graeme Mundine’s crimes have anything to do with the Mundine family being arguably one of the wealthiest and most powerful family mob across Australia? Or, is it that the nation’s political leaders, media institutions, churches and other powerful authorities have learnt barely a lesson from the sickening findings of the groundbreaking Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse?

And that is, silence from those in positions of power only enables and furthers the destruction of lives that occur as a result of sexual abuse. Enough is enough. Come on. Now.