The former Marist Brother who was the cause of an apology to a Hunter abuse victim last week terrorised students while he was the headmaster of a Maitland Catholic school in the 1970s, a former student says.

Fairfax Media reported on Saturday that the Marist Brothers issued a formal apology to Patrick Garnham as part of a settlement over his sexual abuse at the hands of Brother Nestor at Marist Maitland in 1976, when Mr Garnham was 11.

Brother Nestor, also known as John Littler, was the school’s principal at the time he committed the abuse.

Vacy man Peter Gogarty, who was sexually abused by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the 1970s, also attended the school when Brother Nestor was principal.

Mr Gogarty said the Marist Brother terrorised students with physical abuse.

“Aside from sexual abuse, the physical abuse would have been enough to put him in jail [today],” he said.

“At the same time that I was being sexually abused by Jim Fletcher, Nestor was terrorising students.”

On one occasion, Mr Gogarty said, Brother Nestor hit him in the chest with a closed fist because young Peter had “looked at him the wrong way” in the halls of the school.

“Nestor left a trail of destruction all over the country,” Mr Gogarty said.

“He was a nasty, nasty man. 

“You could see the malice on his face.”

Mr Gogarty applauded Mr Garnham for acknowledging the Marist Brothers’ apology as genuine.

“It sounds like he has decided his life is more important than staying bitter,” he said. “I think there is now some genuine remorse in the Catholic Church and in some of the orders.

“But once you’re busted there is not a lot of choice but to say sorry.”

Fairfax Media reported on Saturday that Brother Nestor was aged in his 80s and in poor health.

He left the order in 1995 after the first complaint was made against him in 1991.

In 1993, Nestor pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a young boy during the 1960s.