‘It’s gutless’: clergy abuse survivors and their families outraged by legal stays that thwart cases

Two hours after Audrey Nash forced her son Andrew's bedroom door open, finding him dead by suicide at just 13, she received a surprise home visit from a now notorious member of the Catholic clergy.

Marist Brother Francis "Romuald" Cable, one of New South Wales' worst Catholic school paedophiles, fired off a strange series of questions to the shocked and grieving mother.

"[Cable] asked me, 'Did Andrew leave a note?'," she told the royal commission in 2016. "I said, 'No'."

"[Cable] said, 'Did he say anything?' When I said, 'No,' they got into a little huddle and left."

Nash could not have known it on the day of her son's death, 8 October 1974, but two Marist principals - including one of the men who came to her house, Brother Christopher Wade - had already received prior complaints about Cable.

He was not removed from circulation.

It would take decades for the Marists to acknowledge that "all the evidence points to Andrew having been sexually abused and the evidence also points to Andrew having taken his own life".

The royal commission also found it was open to infer that Cable had asked whether there was a suicide note because he was "concerned that Andrew's suicide might lead to suggestions being made that Andrew was sexually abused".

The Marist Brothers' handling of the Cable case is far from unique. The Catholic order had a policy of not referring abuse complaints to police between 1962 and 1993, and keeping them out of any written record until 1983.

Now, the same order is among a slew of church bodies trying to use the deaths of perpetrators like Cable to thwart civil claims filed by abuse survivors.

When Cable died in September, languishing behind bars for the abuse of two dozen boys, the Marists soon sought a permanent stay to a case brought by one of his victims, a man known by the pseudonym of Mark Peters.

The Marist Brothers are arguing they have not been able to put the allegations to Cable due to his death, despite the fact Peters first notified of his intention to sue 22 months before Cable died.

The approach has outraged Nash, now 97, who remains furious at the Marists' role in delaying and denying justice to so many.

"It's disgraceful. Just disgraceful," she told Guardian Australia.

"Now, Romuald is dead, they're trying to make out you can't sue. I don't know, it's just awful. It really is. It's worse than that, but I can't say the words, the swear words."

The church has been emboldened to use the deaths of paedophile clergy to argue for permanent stays after a decision last year in the case of GLJ, a 14-year-old girl who alleged abuse by the Lismore priest Father Clarence Anderson.

The NSW court of appeal ruled his death left the diocese unable to receive a fair trial.

GLJ's lawyers, Ken Cush and Associates, are appealing against the decision in the high court.

Multiple law firms working on abuse cases say the church is now routinely seeking, or threatening to seek, permanent stays where paedophile clergy have died.

Survivors take on average 22 years to come forward, making the deaths of alleged perpetrators a common occurrence.

The Marist Brothers were approached for a response to Nash's criticisms.

The order has previously said its use of stays was not part of a deliberate strategy, and that each case was considered on its merits. It pointed to the royal commission's recommendation that institutions retain the ability to seek permanent stays in abuse cases.

"Where the accused is not able to respond to the allegations, and a fair trial will not be possible due to the absence of the accused's response, it is accepted that an application for a permanent stay of proceedings is able to be considered," a spokesperson says.

The order says the national redress scheme, which offers capped amounts of compensation, is an alternative to claims that cannot be pursued in court due to the "effluxion of time".