Monivae College

Monivae College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational high school in Hamilton, Victoria. It was established by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1954. Today, no brothers live or teach at the school anymore. It currently caters for day students and is also a boarding school. The school is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat.

Over the last 20 years or so the school has been involved in numerous cases and allegations dealing with child sexual abuse. These include the following individuals:

  • Brother Edward Mamo - was a groundsman, bus driver and hockey coach at Monivae College in the 1970s and 1980s. In two separate trials in 2012 and 2015, Brother Malmo pleaded guilty to charges of indecent assault of 21 boys (in total) aged 11 to 14 in the school’s basement laundry from 1976 to 1980. He was sentenced to two years and three months jails with a minimum of 18 months to be served in the first trial, while in the second trial he was sentenced to a minimum of 12 months in jail with a further 22 months suspended.

  • Father Michael Francis Reis - was for 20 years (on and off) a teacher and senior administrator at the school from 1971 to 2008. Father Reis was arrested in 2008 by police on charges of indecent treatment of two girls aged 10 to 13 while he taught/served in Queensland. The first incident occurred in 1984, while the second in 1994. In between those years, Father Mick Reis served as Rector (1985-1990), and was allowed to continue teaching at the school and served as Head of Boarding, even though the Order’s hierarchy and the school’s principals had known of Father Reis’ behaviour.

    In 1999, the two girls reported the assaults to the Catholic Church who were only given counselling and were led to assume that Father Reis would be banned by the Church from teaching anymore. However, the two girls discovered later on that Father Reis was still teaching at Monivae College and thus reported his abuse to police in 2007. Consequently, Father Reis pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to six months jail with a further 12 months suspended.

  • Brother John Frith – worked and lived at the school during the 1970s and 1980s. He was in charge of attending to sick students at the school’s infirmary. In 2018, he was charged by Victoria Police’s Sano Taskforce with offences allegedly committed against boys whilst he was at the school during the 1970s and 1980s. His trial in the Victorian County Court for March 2020 past postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Brother G.M. Morgan - sexual abuse allegations have also been made against Brother Morgan. The allegations relate to the time he was working in the infirmary at Monivae in the 1960s.

Moody Law has recently represented a client and is currently representing other clients who have made allegations of sexual abuse against Brother Frith and other previous staff members such as lay teacher Terry Walsh whilst they were students at Monivae College.

We invite former students, past teachers, and parents to tell us confidentially what information they may have, and we will explain what options are available to help with these cases.

Call us or complete the confidential enquiry form below.