Ronald Thomas, who now lives in Bulls, was accused at a royal commission of sexual abuse at a Hobart school in the 1960s.

NEW ZEALAND
NZ City

A former teacher accused at an Australian royal commission of child abuse has spoken out from his New Zealand home, denying the allegations and that he fled Australia to avoid arrest.

Ronald Thomas, 77, was accused at the commission of abusing boys while a music teacher at Tasmania’s Hutchins School in the late 1960s.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse heard evidence from a former police chief last month that Mr Thomas had admitted molesting a boy but fled the country to South Africa before he could be arrested.

It was thought he had since died.

However, Mr Thomas has now spoken to The Australian from his home in Bulls and says he made no confessional statement.

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