AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
9 October 2014
The Hon Justice Peter McClellan AM
Chair, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
In 1984, John (not his real name), an 11 year old boy, started as a Year 7 boarder at a prestigious Sydney school. He was, as you would expect, distressed from being away from his family for the first time. About two months into the school year, he was in bed asleep, when he was awakened to find his dormitory master sexually abusing him. The abuse was repeated with escalating severity on several occasions while John was in Year 7. After Year 7, John moved to the Year 8 dormitory. The abuse stopped.
John did not feel able to tell anyone what had happened to him until some years later when he was treated for injuries suffered in an armed robbery. John then told both his doctors and his parents. In 2001, he went to the police. Following an extensive police investigation, John told us that charges were laid against the dormitory master in respect of offences against seven boys, each of whom had at the time of the abuse been a Year 7 boarder.
A dormitory master or person in a similar role abusing multiple children in his care is a regular feature of the personal stories received by the Royal Commission.
The master denied the charges. What John said upset him the most was that the court ordered that each charge be tried separately.
There were eight separate trials. John’s was the last. When giving evidence, John of course could not refer to any factual matters relevant to the other allegations. Parts of his statement could not be discussed. John has since wondered what the members of the jury might have thought if, the day after they acquitted the dormitory master, they discovered through the media that this was the last of eight trials in which the accused was alleged to have offended against boarders. There were two hung juries and six acquittals. None of the juries knew that the accused was alleged to have engaged in the repeated abuse of multiple boys within his care.
We cannot know whether the outcome would have been different if any of the allegations had been tried together. What we do know is that John felt let down by the criminal justice system. His concerns would, I suggest, be shared by many in the community. John believes the jury did not hear the true story.
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