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Former SA deputy premier says he was 'naive' to give paedophile a reference

By Joshua Robertson
Guardian
November 09, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/10/former-sa-deputy-premier-says-he-was-naive-to-give-paedophile-a-reference

Donald Hopgood, a former South Australian education minister, after giving evidence to the child sex abuse royal commission on Monday.
Photo by Dan Peled

A former South Australian deputy premier has said he was “naive” to give a known paedophile teacher – who he had spared from dismissal when education minister – a personal reference that enabled him to work in Queensland and Northern Territory schools where he sexually abused more students.

Donald Hopgood told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse he had a “misguided” sense of obligation to Gregory Robert Knight – who he knew in 1978 had sexually assaulted three students – because Knight conducted a concert band in which the minister played trumpet.

Despite being warned by the South Australian crown solicitor that the only available course was dismissal lest Knight remain a teacher in that state or elsewhere, Hopgood rescinded his sacking of Knight in 1978.

He then failed to ensure the South Australian teacher registration board was informed of undisputed departmental findings that Knight had fondled the penises of three boys at school camps the previous year.

Hopgood, who had read and initially acted on the inquiry findings, then instead relied on the opinion of a senior bureaucrat who said that what Knight had done was “not so bad” that he should be barred from teaching altogether.

Knight, whose South Australian teacher registration remained current for almost four years after his resignation, went on to sexually assault students at Brisbane’s St Paul’s Anglican school and then Dripstone high school in the NT. He was jailed.

He used a reference from Hopgood, on his parliamentary letterhead, to get jobs in both schools.

Hopgood told a commission hearing in Brisbane on Tuesday that “a number of things were running around in my head” when he allowed Knight to quit rather than be sacked.

“I was completely gobsmacked about all this, the fact a fellow I knew reasonably well and had a reasonable contact with acted in that sort of way,” he said. “There was even a sense of denial, although you simply could not contest what [the departmental inquiry] had found.”

He was also concerned about the impact of publicity on the school and the students should Knight appeal against his sacking.

In giving Knight a positive reference, which he understood to be for future positions in music, Hopgood “naively took him at his word” that he would not apply for teaching jobs.

Hopgood assumed the department would pass details of its adverse findings against Knight to the teacher registration board. He accepted that by failing to oversee this he had jeopardised the welfare of students in Queensland and Northern Territory.

Hopgood conceded his reference “may” have led to Knight getting teaching jobs interstate, before being told the commission would hear evidence later in the hearing that they were instrumental in the paedophile’s subsequent employment.

Asked for his motives in giving the reference, Hopgood said he had believed the Noarlunga city concert band, of which he was president, “owed [Knight] something” for his efforts conducting over 12 months during which “we were a bit wonky”.

“I guess I was keeping in my mind quite separately Knight the teacher and Knight the bandmaster,” he said.

Hopgood said his intentions were “honourable” but “naive”, and he regretted signing it.

Knight had called Hopgood to tell him he had tendered his resignation a day before the minister sent a letter advising him of his sacking. Hopgood said Knight had told him a record of dismissal would harm his future employment prospects outside teaching.

The former director of personnel at the SA education department, John Steinle, who has since died, advised Hopgood to accept Knight’s resignation because, “I do not consider … that [he] has acted so badly as to be denied the right even to teach, especially adults.”

SA prosecutors did not proceed but the education department inquiry, which included cross-examination of Knight and other witnesses, found he acted “disgracefully” and accepted the accounts of the trio of boys who alleged he assaulted them.

The hearing continues, with Knight due to appear on Wednesday.




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