Child Abuse Royal Commission: Headmaster Knew Counsellor Shared Penis Stories
By Jorge Branco
Mr Case admitted that in September 1995 two boys, identified during the inquiry as BSB and BRC, raised concerns about adequacy of penis size stemming from meetings with notorious paedophile Kevin John Lynch. "But this was not expressed in any way which could have pointed to the suggestion that the boys' sexual organs had been sighted by Mr Lynch," Mr Case wrote to lawyers representing the school and its insurers the following year. Counsel assisting David Lloyd questioned whether Mr Case thought it was OK for a counsellor to be sharing between students concerns about the adequacy of their penis size.
Kevin John Lynch committed suicide a day after he was charged with molesting. Photo: Network Ten "No, but I don't think I regarded it as improper behaviour," he said. Under further questioning he said, "I didn't think it was all right and I told him so", subsequently admitting there was no evidence he had ever previously told anyone he had spoken to Lynch about the matter. Mr Case said he had considered Lynch's actions as "a slip-up or silliness", rather than a "major or continuing problem". And he told the royal commission two students installed the infamous "traffic light" system on the door of Lynch's office to control whether students could enter or not to save the counsellor known as "skippy" from getting up to answer the door. Lynch committed suicide in January 1997 the day after being charged with sexually abusing a St Paul's student. Dozens of students from the Bald Hills school, and Brisbane Grammar School, where he taught previously, were abused. The commission has heard Lynch regularly "treated" students and former students at his home while he was the counsellor at St Paul's School. Mr Case said on Friday he advised Lynch against seeing former students at his home out of concern for the safety of the counsellor, not the students. He conceded that he knew about the visits but he thought they were mostly ex students of Brisbane Grammar School, where Lynch also abused boys. Mr Case said he, some of the deans at St Paul's and some friends of Lynch spoke about Lynch receiving former students. "We knew it was of some concern to Mr Lynch's safety, because of some experiences he'd described with past Grammar students who'd also visited him at home," he said. Mr Case said he counselled against the school counsellor continuing the practice. "Not strongly, but out of a sense of concern, yes," he said. Mr Case has not been asked whether he paid for security guards for Lynch. On Wednesday, former St Paul's student BSE told the commission how he wore a wire on a visit to Lynch's home in November 1996. He said his old headmaster phoned Lynch while he was visiting him to check whether he had been killed and that Mr Case had paid for security guards to protect the counsellor from former students. On Friday, Mr Case confirmed he had arranged to get in contact with Lynch during the visit to check up on him. "I'm a bit worried about this one," Mr Case recalled Lynch telling him words to the effect of. "I don't know why he wants to see me. "I hope I won't be harmed." The admissions BSE managed to elicit from Lynch on that night, and another visit in December, combined with evidence of his meetings with Lynch at school, led to the paedophile being charged with sexually abusing him on January 22, 1997. Mr Case has maintained he wasn't told of any complaints about the paedophile counsellor until after, or the day before, his death in January 1997. The royal commission has heard testimony from students that the former head was told about abuse by Lynch well before his death but responded by calling them liars and threatening them. Other students and a parent gave evidence they told Mr Case about abuse by music teacher Gregory Robert Knight, a convicted paedophile who abused boys in three states. The royal commission is investigating how both schools and the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane reacted to the abuse. Former governor-general Peter Hollingworth was archbishop at the time and promoted Mr Case to the position of executive director of the Anglican Schools Office of the Diocese of Brisbane, as investigations into Lynch's behaviour was ongoing. On Thursday, the inquiry heard evidence from former St Paul's teacher Craig Patterson that Mr Case had told a staff meeting Dr Hollingworth had "washed his hands" of the Lynch matter and the school would be dealing with it "in-house". The former head testified his understanding of the former governor-general's position was "precisely the opposite" and that he had never said those words. "There was no question the Diocese was involved," he said. Mr Case told the commission he felt Dr Hollingworth encouraged him to apply for the promotion. "Well, Gilbert's here," he said the archbishop at the time told another high-ranking Anglican when discussing a position opening "well before" he applied. "It was as trivial as that." Mr Case's promotion was announced on the day before the GST was introduced, Friday, June 30, but he rejected the suggestion this was an attempted to "minimise media attention". The former head admitted Mr Lynch was never appraised by the school in his eight years as counsellor but blamed union opposition for a delay in introducing a former appraisal process. Dr Hollingworth is scheduled to give evidence on Friday. 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