AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
Ex-police commissioner tells inquiry Hutchins headmaster confessed to sex abuse offences
A 44-year mystery surrounding the sudden disappearance of a prominent private school headmaster has been solved during sensational evidence before a Royal Commission in Hobart.
Former Tasmania Police Commissioner Richard McCreadie told a hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he was about to charge Hutchins headmaster David Lawrence with child sex offences.
Mr McCreadie revealed Lawrence, and Hutchins music teacher Ronald Thomas both confessed to sexually abusing a student, but fled the country before they could be charged.
He said he was a young detective constable in the sexual crimes unit in 1970 when he spoke to a young man who came forward saying Lawrence had abused him and subsequently attempted to hand him off to another pedophile.
Mr McCreadie said he went to the school and spoke to Lawrence about the allegation.
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