BishopAccountability.org
 
 

Child Abuse Royal Commission: Trinity Grammar School Deputy Principal Misread Abuse, Inquiry Hears

By Michelle Brown
ABC News
October 21, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-21/trinity-grammar-deputy-principal-failed-to-reported-abuse/7954820

PHOTO: Justice Peter McClellan questioned Paul Green's response to the abuse. (AAP: Jeremy Piper)

The deputy principal of an elite Sydney boys school has conceded he should have called police about sexual abuse in the school's boarding house, a royal commission has heard.

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is examining how various schools responded to students with problematic or harmful sexual behaviours.

It has heard boys at Trinity Grammar raped and simulated the rape of other students more than 15 years ago, and had used a wooden implement in some of the assaults.

Trinity Grammar's deputy principal Paul Green was asked about an incident report filed in 2000 by a Year 7 student.

It alleged a fellow boarder had forcibly held his legs in the air and simulated rape by pumping his front against him.

After the incident the student armed himself with a piece of wood and swung it defensively yelling "they should stop raping people".

The boy said: "I said this because that wasn't the first time that they and more have tried to rape me or anyone else."

In response, Mr Green told the hearing he did not take the incident as attempted rape on the day.

"Later on when I spoke to [the boy] and as we talked with the other boys, I did not end up perceiving that was an attempted rape," he said.

"In hindsight things would have gone quite different if I had read that [statement] in 2007 after the training and so on that I have, there would be a phone call to the police.

"I agree I could have done better in that situation."

'Alarm bells did not go off'

Mr Green told the inquiry he had undertaken child protection training in 2007.

The exchange prompted questions from Commissioner Peter McClellan.

He said: "So you agree that you got it wrong?"

"I would agree that I could have done better in that situation," Mr Green replied.

"It did not appear to me that it was actual rape occurring I now know whether I think that or not I should have reported it."

Commissioner McClellan pressed Mr Green on the issue.

"This goes beyond rumbling, it goes beyond even bullying in the ordinary meaning of the word — this is really serious conduct," Commissioner McClellan said.

"How could it be, even without training, that you didn't respond with that level of understanding?"

Mr Green said he thought it was a serious problem at the time, but that the "alarm bells did not go off" that it should be considered a possible criminal offence.

He said, aside from the incidents of abuse, the boarding house was a "very caring place".

Commissioner McClellan asked: "It wasn't just boys being boys was it?"

"Definitely not, I've never accepted that as an excuse for boys' behaviour," Mr Green said.

The inquiry continues.

 

 

 

 

 




.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.