MELBOURNE, Australia – An American clergyman suspected of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to an Australian prison for molesting three children in Melbourne more than 30 years ago.
Judge James Parrish on Friday sentenced Brother Bernard Hartman to three years, but suspended one year of the term.
Hartman, a member of the Roman Catholic Marianist religious order, had pleaded guilty in a Melbourne court to four counts of indecent assault involving two female students at St. Paul's College in the late 1970s. A jury found him guilty of one count of indecent assault and two of common law assault for abusing a male student in 1981-82.
Officials say the 75-year-old Hartman is one of eight brothers accused of molesting 20 students at Pittsburgh's North Catholic High School.
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