Glen Walsh and Steven Alward were childhood friends in their tight-knit working-class community in Newcastle, NSW. Both proud altar boys at the local Catholic church, they went on to attend the city's Catholic boys' high schools. Glen discovered that another priest was sexually abusing boys and reported the offender to police. Meanwhile, Steven was fighting his own battle to overcome a traumatic past. Ensuing investigations revealed that at least 60 men in the region had taken their own lives. What had happened, and why were so many of those men from the three Catholic high schools in the area? The Altar Boys is the explosive expose of widespread and organised clerical abuse of children in one Australian city. Focusing on two childhood friends, their families and community, this gripping story is backed by secret documents, diary notes and witness accounts, and details a deliberate church strategy of using psychological warfare against witnesses in key trials.