More than three decades after he crept into the room of a Sydney student and sexually abused him, a Marist brother has been sentenced to at least 21 months in prison.
After eight other trials in which he was acquitted, John Dennis Maguire, 71, showed no emotion as he was sent to jail for the first time.
The 71-year-old was convicted of six counts of indecent assault, relating to the abuse of a student at the exclusive St Joseph's College in Sydney's Hunters Hill in the 1980s.
The court has heard the boy, who was aged 11 and 12 at the times of the sexual abuse, had oral sex performed on him and, on four occasions, was lured into a room where Maguire indecently assaulted him.
On one occasion while the boy was sleeping in a school dorm, which Maguire was in charge of, he awoke to find the then 39-year-old half-naked, crouching next to his bed performing oral sex on him.
Maguire then took the boy into his office and continued the abuse.
In sentencing him at Sydney's District Court, Judge Peter Whitford said Maguire "was like a father figure to the victim".
"He was well aware of the victim's frailty," he said.
"He had ample opportunity to think about his conduct but continued his behaviour."
Maguire, the court heard, steadfastly maintained his innocence.
His solicitor Greg Walsh had previously argued a suspended sentence should be considered owing to his age, lack of reoffending and the difficult time he would have in prison.
He said Maguire was a "truly a broken man".
But Judge Whitford said there was a need for general deterrence and to show that "yielding to sexual impulses towards children" would end in punishment.
He was sentenced to at least one year and nine months' imprisonment and a maximum of three years.
He will be eligible for parole in December next year.
"What has taken place is a tragedy for all involved," Marist Brothers Australia said in a statement after Maguire's sentencing.
"That any young person placed in our care has been abused is a matter of great regret and remorse for us all."
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