Gerard McNamara, 86, who had occupied significant respect as a Marist brother, was working as school counsellor at a Catholic school in Gippsland in the 1990s, a judge said in sentencing remarks.
But under the cover of his job, he identified and preyed on a bright young student.
In 1995, a male student in his early high school years, was caught with cigarettes.
After being sent to the principal's office and informed his father would be called, the student became distressed and disclosed he had been physically abused at home.
The school told the boy police would need to be called over his claim.
McNamara took the boy back to his office and said police must be called unless he let him examine the boy for physical signs of abuse.
Fearing his father would be reported to authorities, he agreed.
After stripping the boy, McNamara ran his hands over the boy's body and began sexually abusing him.
He took pictures, telling the boy it was to prove he wasn't hurt.
The counsellor left the boy in his office before returning later where, as he was rubbing the student's back and telling him he was there to support him, began abusing him again.
On another occasion, the student had told a teacher he couldn't run in a sport event because of an injury.
McNamara overheard this and said he could fix the issue through massage before sexually touching him during the process.
After getting into a fight with another student at school, McNamara took the victim to his office, telling him the other student wanted him charged over the fight.
During that counselling session, McNamara again sexually abused him.
The boy was suspended from school over the fight.
While the sexual abuse was initially opportunistic, County Court Judge Kate Hawkins said McNamara manipulated the victim to his abuse.
"The student was succeeding academically and on the sporting field," she said on Thursday.
"Your offending devastated his budding confidence.
"He felt like he was treated like a piece of meat and didn't feel safe at school."
McNamara was jailed for 36 months with 31 months suspended, meaning he will spend five months in custody.
But having already spent 132 days on remand awaiting his sentence, the pedophile Marist brother will be released in about 20 days.
The judge said McNamara's age, health, length of time since his offending and the lack of access to children from him being on the sex offender registry for life were mitigating factors to a longer sentence.
"Any term of imprisonment will be a significant period in your lifespan," she said.
McNamara was previously jailed for nine months in 2018 for abusing five students at St Paul's Secondary College and was sentenced to seven months in 2020 for the abuse of five more students between 1970 and 1975.
He was previously sentenced in 2005 and 2016 for sexual assaults against other children at the college and both times he received suspended prison terms.
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