Brisbane Schools "Failed to Act" on Kevin Lynch Sexual Abuse Allegations
By Nick Wiggins and Matt Eaton
A prestigious Brisbane private school harboured a culture in which children making allegations of abuse were treated as liars, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has found. The commission has handed down its report into what it calls Case Study 34, examining allegations of abuse at Brisbane Grammar School in Spring Hill and St Paul's School in the northern Brisbane suburb of Bald Hills. It heard evidence that school counsellor Kevin Lynch sexually abused "a large number of students" while he was working at Brisbane Grammar between 1973 and 1988, and continued abusing student as a counsellor at St Paul's between 1989 and 1997. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found then Brisbane Grammar headmaster Maxwell Howell (who died in 2011) was aware of one specific complaint, but did not investigate allegations and did not refer the matter to police.
"In not doing so, he failed in his obligations to protect the safety and well-being of students," the commission report said. "We find that during Dr Howell's period as headmaster [1965 to 1989] there was a culture at Brisbane Grammar where boys who made allegations of sexual abuse were not believed and allegations were not acted upon." The commission also noted that since 1998, Brisbane Grammar had put in place various policies and procedures for responding to complaints of child sexual abuse. St Paul's head threatened to punish boys alleging abuse Case Study 34 also examined allegations no action was taken on reports Lynch also abused students at St Paul's.
"There was evidence that [St Paul's] school was aware of complaints of sexual abuse of students by Mr Lynch and took no action to deal with those complaints," the commission report found. The report said two boys went to then school principal Gilbert Case and told him Lynch had been sexually abusing them. "Mr Case made a phone call to 'Kevin' and discussed the allegations," the report noted, adding that after the phone call Mr Case told the boys "they were lying and threatened to punish them if they persisted with the allegations". "On 22 January 1997, while Mr Lynch was still employed as the school counsellor, the Queensland Police Service charged Mr Lynch with nine counts of offences committed against a St Paul's student," the report said. "The following day, Mr Lynch committed suicide." Hollingworth 'aware of allegations and failed to respond' It also found then Anglican archbishop Peter Hollingworth was involved in appointing Mr Case to the position of executive director of the Anglican Schools Commission, and was aware of allegations he had failed to respond to a student's complaints of abuse. "This role involved liaising with various Anglican schools throughout Brisbane to develop, implement and improve their policies to deal with allegations of child sexual abuse," the report said. "Mr Case was appointed to this position by a committee in circumstances where two members of the committee (Dr Peter Hollingworth and Mr Bernard Yorke) were aware of allegations that Mr Case had been told about Mr Lynch's sexual abuse of students and that Mr Case had not taken any action in response." Anglican Schools Commission executive director Sherril Molloy said the report highlighted a devastating chapter in St Paul's history from which many people were still struggling to recover. "Our thoughts and prayers remain with the survivors of this horrendous abuse whom we implore to come forward for care and assistance if they have yet to do so," Ms Molloy said. "We now have a raft of measures in place to better protect children including at least two trained student protection officers in each school supported by a former police detective inspector, a current police detective senior constable and a former State Government senior child safety officer."
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