AUSTRALIA
SBS
AAP
Former teachers at Knox Grammar school say mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse was never part of in-house training.
Timothy Hawkes was a senior boarding master at the Sydney private school in the late 1980s when a boy was sexually assaulted by a balaclava-wearing intruder.
Dr Hawkes, who’s now headmaster of Kings College Parramatta, told a national inquiry on Thursday he was unaware of mandatory reporting laws during his time in Knox. He was there from 1981 to 1989.
The children care and protection act 1987 became law in January 1988.
“I had no understanding of what my legal or proper obligations should have been in relation to reporting sexual assault on a child other than the requirement to immediately notify the headmaster,” he said.
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