AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
MEGAN BAILEY DIAMOND VALLEY OCTOBER 15, 2014
A PASTOR from Bundoora’s Encompass Church has expressed remorse to the victims of paedophile teacher Kenneth Sandilands during hearings into the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
In 2000, Kenneth Sandilands, now 69, pleaded guilty and was jailed for two years for 13 counts of indecently assaulting eight students in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Pastor John Spinella, from Encompass Church (formerly Northside Christian Church), was at Northside Christian College and was on the church board during Sandilands’ time.
Mr Spinella yesterday told the commission hearing the organisation had “bungled” its handling of the matter, in particular the Reverend Denis Smith, who had the power to fire Sandilands.
Mr Spinella said the school now had a mandatory reporting policy for suspected abuse.
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