Child abuse royal commission: Former Brisbane Grammar School counsellor hypnotised, sexually abused boys during sessions, inquiry hears

By Leonie Mellor And Louisa Rebgetz
ABC News
November 3, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/pccl4kr

The latest public hearings in Brisbane will look at the experiences of former students at Brisbane Grammar School.

A former school counsellor often hypnotised then sexually abused boys during counselling sessions at Brisbane Grammar School, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

Two prestigious private schools in south-east Queensland, the Brisbane Grammar School (BGS) at Spring Hill and St Paul's School at Bald Hills, are the focus of public hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane.

The nine-day hearing is focusing on the actions of former school counsellor Kevin John Lynch at Brisbane Grammar School from the 1970s to 1990s, as well as the abuse by a teacher at St Paul's, Gregory Knight.

An ex-student at Brisbane Grammar School - called BQK - said he was systematically hypnotised and then physically and sexually abused by Lynch, who said it would improve his behaviour and performance.

Counsel assisting the inquiry David Lloyd told the commission Lynch often hypnotised and sexually abused boys during the sessions at both schools.

BQK said his meetings with Lynch would last an hour.

"While I was under hypnosis Lynch would do sick things," BQK told the commission.

"Lynch convinced me that his treatment method would make me academically and athletically superior and give me an advantage over my peers by harnessing the power of orgasms."

BQK told the commission that BGS staff were not doing their job if they did not know what was going on.

"How can you justify having soundproof, fire-rated, dead-bolted doors on the front and back when the rest of the school has timber treated windows on every door," he said.

"I was badly let down by this culture of turning a blind eye and protecting the brand and it is hard not to see it as a deliberate cover-up."

Last month, the BGS reiterated its apology to former students who were sexually abused by Lynch.

He killed himself in 1997 after being charged with abusing a student at St Paul's, having moved there after Grammar.

Knight had previously worked at Darwin's Dripstone High School.

Counsel assisting the inquiry said serious allegations of child abuse were made against Knight in 1993 and that the response from the school and the NT Department of Education was "swift".

"There was a meeting attended by the school principal, Knight and a senior member of the NT Education Department," Mr Lloyd said.

"Knight was confronted with the allegations of sexual abuse and he accepted the truth of those allegations."

His offer to resign was refused, with the school sacking him on the spot.

The hearing heard that Dripstone "arranged counselling for the children" and the department "made sure police were notified".

In 1994, Knight was convicted and sentenced to eight years imprisonment with a three-year non-parole period.

The commission also heard how a former government minister failed to dismiss music teacher Knight, who went on to abuse a significant number of children when he worked at St Paul's in Brisbane in the 1980s.

Mr Lloyd said in 1978, an inquiry found Knight guilty of disgraceful conduct and recommended he be dismissed from teaching.

The then-South Australia education minister, Dr Donald Hopgood, instead accepted Knight's resignation and gave him a positive reference.

Dr Hopgood has also been called as a witness.

He said the commission will examine what senior staff of Brisbane Grammar and St Paul's knew about the sexual abuse by Lynch.

The inquiry is expected to hear evidence of students' experiences at both schools and will investigate the schools' responses after complaints were made.