Police investigating a paedophile network at a Catholic boys school at Ballarat, in the west of the Australian state of Victoria, say up to 30 students have committed suicide since being abused by their teachers.
Detective Sergeant Kevin Carson has spent the past decade investigating complaints against the former principal of St Alipius Catholic boys school, Brother Robert Best.
This week Best faced a pre-sentencing hearing after being convicted of sexually abusing 11 boys at three different schools between 1969 and 1988.
Three other Brothers from the school have also been convicted of abusing young boys.
Detective Carson told 7:30 Victoria it is likely there are more victims since the abuse began more than 40 years ago.
"Very, very sadly it's well and truly over 20, closer to 30 [suicides], and no doubt there'll be more once we start looking a bit," he said.
There are calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the reports of suicide.
A victim told 7:30 Victoria an inquiry must look into the deaths and how the Catholic church handled the case.
"I believe that we should be able to say, OK, this is where this paedophile taught at this school, let's look at this, let's analyse it, let's comes forward and say this is where we need to go, this is what needs to be done," he said.