AUSTRALIA
ABC – PM
MARK COLVIN: The child abuse Royal Commission has been told that the Northside Christian College in Melbourne failed miserably in its duty of care after 30 children were sexually abused in the 1980s and 1990s.
The inquiry is looking at the serial offender Ken Sandilands.
It’s revealed explosive allegations that the school’s senior pastor bungled the handling of complaints from children, parents, and other teachers. The accusation is that that allowed Sandilands to go on abusing children several years after the first allegations emerged in 1986.
Pastor Denis Smith sat on the church board and chaired the school council. He’s accused of failing to sack Sandilands and concealing crucial information about his misconduct from the school board.
After lengthy and at times heated questioning, Reverend Smith admitted that he did bear some responsibility for what happened at the college.
Emily Bourke reports.
EMILY BOURKE: The Royal Commission has heard that the person at Northside Christian College making the decisions about former teacher and convicted sex offender Ken Sandilands was the former senior pastor, and that was indisputable.
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