The Christian Brothers have taken the extraordinary step of moving the grave of a notoriously brutal brother from the grounds of a WA school as the Catholic Church reels from revelations of past abuse.

The Catholic order has dismantled the grave of Brother Francis Paul Keaney at Bindoon Agricultural College, shifting his remains to a humble plot at Karrakatta, effectively erasing any trace of the Brother from the institution he once ruled over.

Keaney set up the Tardun farm school near Geraldton in the 1920s and was principal at Clontarf and Bindoon Boys Town from 1942 through to his death in 1954.

Child migrants from Britain and Ireland have given evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse telling how Keaney presided over a fiercely brutal regime at Bindoon.

Former students say Keaney used the children as slaves and forced them to carve Bindoon school out of the bush with little more than their bare hands.

Beatings were frequent and savage and paedophile brothers operated freely inside the school.

In a parliamentary speech in 2001, WA senator Andrew Murray labelled Keaney a “conman, sadist and deviant”. Mr Murray is now a commissioner on the child abuse inquiry.

Keaney’s body had been held in a prominent ornate marble grave at Bindoon College since his death more than 60 years ago. It is understood his remains were reinterred at Karrakatta a few months ago. His new grave is marked by only a simple plaque and makes no mention of his past or his MBE award in 1954.

A spokesman for the Christian Brothers Oceania Province did not directly address questions on the decision to move Keaney’s body but said the order “fully acknowledges the pain and suffering that has flowed from the sexual abuse of children”.

“We are unreserved in our apology,” the spokesman said.

Gordon Grant, a former Bindoon student, said the decision to move the remains had been applauded by abuse victims. “At last, Keaney is no longer honoured at Bindoon where he did so much damage,” the 83-year-old said.