A 12-year-old boy went alone to Woden police station where police dismissed what was then the apparently fanciful idea that a brother would molest children. It was like Kostka had gone to school to "learn this crap", one man said. The brother would wear a cassock without underwear or pants underneath. He told them God would approve this behaviour. He was helping them grow into men. Kostka kept a pet golden Labrador named Jason in an unusual practice for the brothers but one that prosecutors said facilitated the grooming process. One boy trapped next to Kostka in a movie theatre resorted to banging his head against the wall and repeating the words "leave me alone". The school didn't believe him when he said Kostka had touched him.

The brother dished out punishment by way of a thick leather strap or a belting from a big purple bible. The victims were left broken and afraid to speak out. "But he never won, because I'm still alive,” one man said. Given his health, the 86-year-old had been found unfit to plead or be tried, triggering the process for the special hearing eventually heard by a judge. One by one the men's stories were revealed in the ACT Supreme Court, their evidence unchallenged by the defence as they made their abuse a matter of public record. Chute faced 16 charges as against six victims between 1979 and 1986. There were 14 counts of indecent assault of a minor, one charge of buggery without consent and one charge of an act of indecency with a minor. Justice David Mossop returned not guilty verdicts on the count of buggery and a count of indecent assault. All other abuse had been perpetrated as alleged, the judge found.

But there will be no finding of guilt. Instead the law provides for the somewhat awkward concept of non acquittal. The events happened but Kostka cannot be found guilty because of his decrepit mental and physical health. It is likely orders will be made that will mean Kostka will remain in his nursing home, though the next steps are yet to be decided. Kostka is one of NSW and the ACT’s most notorious paedophiles. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to a large number of historical sex abuse charges as against 19 children and was jailed for at least two years. His case was the subject of hearings at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse. Those hearings were told the Marist Brothers had received at least 48 complaints from as early as 1959, and from six different schools, before Kostka was finally jailed. By 2014, the Marist Brothers had paid out $6.84 million in compensation to 38 former students in connection to Kostka.

He was one of four Canberra men charged in the wake of the royal commission. And it was only because in 2013 the ACT changed the statute of limitations in what now seems archaic child abuse laws that had required child victims in the late last century to report abuse within 12 months of it happening. Outside court on Thursday Kostka's lawyer Greg Walsh apologised to the victims. “It was very important for the victims to have the opportunity to be vindicated, and this is a very important procedure for them,” he said. “I know the learned Crown prosecutor and myself and the learned judge Justice Mossop certainly afforded them every understanding with respect to the conduct of the proceedings.” Mr Walsh said the hearing was difficult and stressful, and it was evident from the men how Kostka’s abuse had impacted them.