Knox Grammar to Become Focus of Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission

By Thomas Oriti
ABC News
January 23, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-23/knox-grammar-focus-of-child-sexual-abuse-royal-commission/6040564

Exclusive Sydney school Knox Grammar is set to become the focus of a royal commission, with a public hearing to examine how a number of teachers were able to molest boys for decades.

Located on Sydney's Upper North Shore, Knox Grammar boasts former prime ministers and prominent actors amongst its alumni.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is turning its attention to the school to examine how the independent school, run by the Uniting Church, responded to concerns about inappropriate conduct from 1970 to 2012.

In 2009 and 2010, four men pleaded guilty to abusing students at Knox Grammar.

The high profile cases included former teacher Craig Treloar, who was jailed in 2010 for abusing four boys aged from 11 to 13 between 1986 and 1987.

Another teacher, Adrian Nisbett, was handed a suspended sentence in the same year for molesting boys in 1976 and 1986.

It has been revealed that the men continued teaching after the abuse. In at least one instance, the crimes went unnoticed for more than 20 years.

Investigations and subsequent criminal proceedings are expected to be a core focus of the royal commission's inquiry.

A public hearing is also expected to take a broader approach by examining the regulatory system that governed the response of Knox Grammar, as a non-government school in New South Wales, to allegations of abuse at the hands of its employees.

Knox Grammar said it has always accepted responsibility.

Starting on February 23, former students and the school will be asked to give evidence about how the abuse went unnoticed for such a long time.

Some of Knox Grammar's alumni include veteran broadcaster John Laws, former editor of the satirical Oz magazine Richard Neville, actor Hugh Jackman, ethicist Simon Longstaff and former Macquarie Bank chairman David Clarke.

Before the case study into Knox Grammar, the royal commission will hold a public hearing into allegations of abuse at the Yeshivah Colleges in Melbourne and in Bondi, in Sydney's east.

The royal commission has also turned its sights on the sexual exploitation of children in state care over the last decade.

The ABC revealed in January the commission had ordered private organisations and government departments across Australia to hand over 10 years' worth of data relating to the alleged and proven sexual abuse of children in care.