BR CLINCH also revealed the Christian Brothers spent $1.5 million to defend Robert Best in court.

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THE Christian Brothers have paid Ballarat victims nearly $3 million, Oceania Province leader Brother Peter Clinch told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday.

Br Clinch said the average payment was $70,000, though 11 recipients had their claims re-examined and raised to $90,000.

He said investment funds were being liquidated to pay victims in Ballarat, Perth, Goulburn, Melbourne and Sydney. He also said victims asking for third re-examinations would be considered.

"We won't be putting our hand up and saying go away," Br Clinch said.

He also said offenders, in hindsight, had "immature" relationships with other adults.

"They were very sick men and I'd say the environment in which they were living exacerbated that sickness."

Br Clinch said the first he heard of the offences was in the early 1990s through the media, rather than the Christian Brothers.

However he also admitted he did not ask further questions about the offenders or who knew of the offending, despite being head of the Edmund Rice Centre in Melbourne.