Brisbane Grammar Counsellor Ritually Abused Students, Royal Commission Told

By Joshua Robertson
The Guardian
November 3, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/04/brisbane-grammar-counsellor-ritually-abused-students-royal-commission-told

A tribute to schoolboy victims of abuse who spoke at an earlier hearing of the royal commission in Sydney. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

A counsellor at a prestigious Queensland private school ritually hypnotised students before masturbating them, slapping them in the face and putting acupuncture needles in one child’s genitals, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse has heard.

The scores of alleged victims of Kevin Lynch at Brisbane Grammar school included a boy who was sexually abused in a grief counselling session given after learning his father had committed suicide.

The commission hearing in Brisbane is examining the response to abuse claims against Lynch from the 1970s to the 1990s at Grammar and later St Paul’s Anglican school, and another former St Paul’s teacher, Gregory Robert Knight in the 1980s.

Also to come under scrutiny is former South Australian education minister Don Hopgood, who was a member of the same musical group in Adelaide as Knight when he gave him a glowing personal reference on parliamentary letterhead despite allegedly knowing a departmental inquiry found Knight engaged in “disgraceful” conduct with school students.

The royal commission also heard that Hopgood ordered that the South Australian education department rescind its dismissal of Knight and accept his resignation, which enabled him to get jobs in Queensland schools. Knight lost his job at St Paul’s over abuse allegations but then taught in the Northern Territory, where he was eventually jailed over indecent dealing with a student.

One alleged victim of Lynch, known only as BQK, told the commission that the counsellor’s “treatment [was] built around his convincing me that I could harness the power of my orgasms to gain an edge” in studies and sport.

“He would regularly masturbate me to the point of ejaculation and sometimes would make me ingest my own semen,” he said.

Lynch also slapped the boy in the face to “psyche me up about winning a metaphorical race”.

“Other times he would use acupuncture needles and put them into my testicles or stick his thumb in my anus,” BQK said.

BQK told the commission he “assumed this was a normal treatment method” and did not appreciate he had been seriously abused until “well into my adult life”.

He said he could not understand why Grammar staff had not questioned why Lynch operated out of a room that had two heavy, soundproof doors, red and green light signals controlling student access, and had significant stocks of tissues and towels, which he used to wipe up semen.

The room was set up as a “sick conveyer belt of victims for Lynch”, he said.

BQK alleged to the commission that Wayne Cochrane, a former Grammar schoolmaster, had failed to protect him.

BQK said Grammar was “essentially a business venture which traded on its reputation and was blind to anything which didn’t accord to that vision”.

“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 is a deliberate cover up,” he said.

Counsel assisting the commission, David Lloyd, said that Lynch abused “significant numbers” of students at Grammar from 1973 to 1988 and then at St Paul’s Anglican school from 1989 to 1997.

The commission was in contact with 80 former students of both schools claiming abuse, Lloyd said.

Lynch committed suicide in 1997 a day after he was charged with sex offences against a St Paul’s student who had secretly recorded a confession.

The scale of Lynch’s abuse only came into public view following media revelations that Nigel Parodi, who shot three police then himself in 2000, was among his victims at Grammar.

Lloyd said the commission would hear evidence from parents that they raised allegations of sexual abuse by Lynch with then Grammar headmaster Maxwell Howell.

Howell in affidavits before his death denied hearing any specific allegations against Lynch. But Lloyd said the school’s insurer had concluded that Howell was aware of abuse claims, forcing the school to shoulder much of its private settlements with complainants.

Witnesses also told the hearing of the difficulties in seeking redress in view of Grammar’s link to the legal community.

During his testimony BQK angrily lashed out at prominent barrister Walter Sofronoff, who is representing Grammar after the alleged victim paid him $5,000 for a legal opinion on his case about 10 years ago.

BQK, the owner of a successful media business, said he was one of the few former Grammar students who rejected the school’s “insulting” offer of $30,000 to settle a class action over Lynch in 2002.

He said the mediation process, during which he was denied the opportunity to speak about his abuse, “felt like a sausage factory where all the claimants were simply herded in and out with very little care and attention”.

He told the commission he could not believe that Sofronoff was now “on the payroll of the school” after he had given him “confidential information from A to Z about my situation”.

Sofronoff earlier told the commission he could resolve the conflict by excusing himself from questioning of BQK. BQK told the commission his acting for Grammar was “just so symbolic of the fact the school does not get it – that a person that I paid $5,000 to for an opinion almost 10 years ago is buyable by the school”.

Another witness, BQG, told the commission that after the 2002 class action he had sought legal assistance from solicitor Stuart Bale who had been chairman of the board of governors at Grammar at the time the alleged abuse occurred.

“Looking back now I think Bale should have said to me, ‘I’ve got a conflict, I can’t deal with this’,” he said, adding he went to another lawyer when Bale “stopped returning my calls”.

The royal commission hearing continues on Wednesday.