AUSTRALIA
The Australian
MARCH 04, 2015
Ean Higgins
Reporter
Sydney
THE former headmaster of Knox Grammar has denied a sensational allegation that he indecently assaulted a schoolgirl 25 years ago.
Lucy Perry this week told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that in 2009 she reported to police that when she was rehearsing for a musical directed by the headmaster 20 years earlier, he had indecently assaulted her.
Ms Perry told the inquiry that while rehearsing for a strip club scene in Guys and Dolls when she was a 16 year old schoolgirl, Ian Paterson, in a deliberate act of misogyny to humiliate her, had put his hand on her bottom and touched her genitals, to a roar of delight of the Knox boys in the cast.
Dr Paterson said he remembered Ms Perry performing in the class, but categorically denied the groping incident took place.
As to the allegations that the boys roared at the time, Dr Paterson said: “They were roaring with approval for her performance as the sultry dancer.”
The inquiry also heard from Dr Paterson that when a former student threatened to sue the school for allegedly having been sexually molested by Stewart, and to publicly expose widespread homosexuality at Knox, he kept file notes that he made the decision not to tell the school council about it.
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