BishopAccountability.org

Child abuse royal commission: Grammar school solicitor under fire

By Jorge Branco
Brisbane Times
November 4, 2015

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/child-abuse-royal-commission-grammar-school-solicitor-under-fire-20151104-gkqhej.html

Walter Sofronoff QC leaves the Brisbane Magistrates Court on the first day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Photo by Jorge Branco

Brisbane Grammar School is at the centre of the child abuse inquiry.

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[with video]

The solicitor representing Brisbane Grammar School has come under fire for questioning a key piece of evidence from a Kevin Lynch sex abuse victim.

A Grammar old boy had told the child abuse royal commission former headmaster Max Howell had walked in on the student naked from the waist down with Lynch in the paedophile's office.

Walter Sofronoff QC, acting for the school, questioned the victim, known only as BQA, extensively about the incident.

He noted BQA had not previously referred to the incident in correspondence with the school or legal claims dating back at least 15 years and its first mention came in his submission made to the royal commission this week.

Eventually Mr Sofronoff said: "I suggest to you that it didn't happen".

"I suggest that you weren't there. It did happen," BQA replied angrily.

"What I will explain to you is that such memories like this are not linear, they are not consistent.

"They come at random times and this, for me, came 14 years after I thought this was dead and buried."

Mr Sofronoff then told the witness no one would criticise him for a memory failure..

"You've just accused me of fabricating evidence so I think you are," he said to loud applause from the gallery.

Earlier, BQA had accused the serving chairman of the school's Board of Trustees of repeatedly lying to a royal commission.

He told the hearing in Brisbane of a "culture of covering up anything" that would tarnish the school's reputation when he was abused in the early 1980s.

The man said he and his mother had met with chairman Howard Stack  twice roughly a year before fellow victim Nigel Parodi shot three police officers in Chermside.

In the second of those meetings, about the late 1990s,  he said Mr Stack was not helpful at all and kept stating his job was to protect the "fabric of the school and the boys who were attending now".

The witness also accused the police at the time of failing to investigate the "cover-up" of Lynch's crimes after he committed suicide in 1997, saying "no perp, no case".

He said an officer told him the school had "systematically" shredded evidence relating to Lynch.

The witness also said he was Nigel Parodi's best friend at one time and spoke to him about Lynch about 12 months before the shootings.

"Brisbane Grammar have shown no genuine contrition for what happened despite their official stance and have always acted to protect the school's interest above those of the victims," he said.

"I believe Brisbane Grammar deliberately took advantage of my vulnerable state to ensure I would not be able to bring any claims for personal injury within the time limits available.

"I believe Brisbane Grammar and Stack in particular knowingly misled the courts, solicitors and the public at large that they had no knowledge of the abuse that was occurring.

"I also believe that Stack has repeatedly lied in his evidence to the commission."

BQA was abused by Lynch for several years and like many other boys, was made to feel "special" and see Lynch as a father figure.

He told the commission he was blamed for "tempting" notorious paedophile Kevin Lynch when former Grammar headmaster Max Howell saw him in Lynch's office with his pants off.

Mr Howell called BQA a sick individual and ordered him back to class while he stayed behind to speak to Lynch, he said.

"I felt so confused. Part of me felt dirty and grubby whilst the other part craved the attention that I was getting and feeling like I was special," he said.

"I felt that Lynch loved me and he still often told me he that he wished I was his son."

BQA said he had met with the Beattie government about revoking the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims but was ignored and called on the Palaszczuk government to act immediately.

The former student spoke of open knowledge among staff and students of Lynch's actions in so-called counselling sessions.

On one school camp in Year 9, he said he was even bullied about his relationship with Lynch by a relief PE teacher, who constantly told him he knew about his "dirty little secret" and referred to the boy as a "bundle of sticks", otherwise known as a faggot.

His absences from class to visit lynch became so severe another teacher greeted him with words like "thank you for gracing us with your presence today" and "Let me guess, more counselling", he said.

"The boys in my class would often start chanting "poof poof poof" under their breath as I walked past them to my desk," BQA said.

 
Contact: jorge.branco@fairfaxmedia.com.au




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