AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail
Disgraced teacher Gerard Byrnes told his boss he never had inappropriate contact with children – they approached him!
MICHAEL MADIGAN THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 21, 2014
IN an attempt to defend himself against allegations of sexual abuse, disgraced teacher Gerard Byrnes wrote to his principal declaring he never had inappropriate contact with children, and in fact many approached him.
The man who sexually assaulted 13 Toowoomba schoolgirls insisted he had always “upheld appropriate professional standards”.
A 2½-page letter penned by Byrnes reveals an insight into how he tried to methodically dodge eight separate allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
Tabled at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, sitting in Brisbane yesterday, the letter shows how Byrnes insisted his interactions with the girls were “friendly and innocuous”.
School principal Terence Hayes wrote to Byrnes soon after the first allegations were made, the royal commission heard.
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