Clairvaux St Bernard’s Junior College – Witnesses Sought

Chamberlains Law Firm is looking for witnesses to come forward in relation to information pertaining to Clairvaux St Bernard’s Junior College, Katoomba.

Clairvaux St Bernard’s Junior College was open between February 1941 and December 1966.

The school was a boarding school and housed a number of young boys in dormitories throughout the school year. Chamberlains Law Firm acts for individuals who were allegedly sexually abused while staying at the boarding school and urge witnesses to come forward who were at the school between February 1941 and December 1966.

Child abuse in institutions is likely to have impacted at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of children over the past decades. In a case study conducted for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse it was noted that a victim who had lived in a ‘closed’ or ‘total institution’ such as a boarding school reported that the sense of powerlessness, helplessness and betrayal they experienced may have exacerbated the impacts of the abuse.

For many survivors, as they develop into adulthood, they suffer debilitating symptoms of trauma, the effects multiply and reach outwards to families, friends, institutions and communities. It is important that these individuals are able to receive recognition for what has occurred.

Chamberlains Law Firm is happy to speak with anyone who may be able to assist.