Abuse claims in northern Tasmania: St Patrick’s College (Launceston), George Town High School, and Marist Regional College (Burnie)
Across northern Tasmania, a number of schools – government and non-government, secular and religious – have been identified as sites where children experienced institutional abuse. The findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry have shone a light on the systemic failures that allowed perpetrators to operate in school settings, often for extended periods, without effective challenge or consequence.
Marist Regional College (Burnie)
Marist Regional College in Burnie is a co-educational Catholic school that has been the subject of a significant number of historical child sexual abuse claims. Multiple staff members have been convicted of offences against students, with abuse spanning from the early 1970s through to at least the early 1980s.
Stephen Randell – who later became a prominent international cricket umpire – was a physical education teacher at Marist in 1981 and 1982. In 1999, he was convicted on 15 counts of indecent assault against nine female students. The abuse occurred in classroom settings, on excursions, and during home visits. Randell has also been identified as a perpetrator at St Virgil’s College in Hobart, where a civil claim brought by a former student known as ‘Callum’ settled mid-trial in the Tasmanian Supreme Court in early 2025. His conduct across multiple institutions reflects a broader failure by the Tasmanian education system to identify and stop offenders operating across school settings.
In 2004, former Marist priest trainee Paul Ronald Goldsmith was arrested for sexually abusing 20 teenage boys during his time coaching athletics at the school between 1974 and 2000. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. A third perpetrator, Gregory Ferguson, was sentenced in 2007 for offences against two boys at the College in 1971. The pattern of multiple perpetrators operating across different decades points to systemic failures in the institution’s safeguarding culture.
St Patrick’s College (Launceston)
St Patrick’s College is a Catholic boys’ school in Launceston with a history of documented child sexual abuse claims. The College has been identified as a site of concern in connection with the broader findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which examined patterns of abuse within Catholic educational institutions nationally. If you attended St Patrick’s College and experienced abuse, you may be entitled to seek compensation.
George Town High School
George Town High School is a Tasmanian government school that has been identified as a site of institutional child abuse. It falls within the scope of the Independent Inquiry into the Tasmanian Department of Education’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which examined failures of reporting and response across the government school system. The Department of Education has accepted all recommendations arising from these inquiries and has apologised to victim-survivors. If you attended George Town High School and experienced abuse, you are encouraged to seek legal advice about your options.
Who may be affected
If you attended any of these schools as a student and experienced sexual or physical abuse by a teacher, coach, or other staff member, you may be entitled to compensation. Recent legislative changes in Tasmania have made it significantly easier for survivors of historical school abuse to make civil claims, including the removal of time limits that previously barred many people from seeking justice. You do not need to have been involved in previous inquiries, criminal proceedings, or redress schemes. Many survivors of school abuse have never come forward, and it is not too late.
How MEJ can help
We have helped survivors across Tasmania and Australia pursue compensation from schools, religious orders, and government education departments. We understand the school environment – the authority structures, the culture of trust, and the way that abuse in educational settings can take years to process and name. We are here to listen, and to help you take the next step.
If you or someone you know has been affected by abuse in any of these settings, MEJ is here to help. Contact us today for a free, confidential conversation with our team, or call 1800 570 778.
If you need immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Sexual Assault Crisis Line on 1800 697 877 (available 24/7).