AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Nicole Chettle
A former headmaster at the prestigious Sydney boys’ school, Knox Grammar, has told a royal commission he deliberately withheld information from police conducting an investigation into child sexual abuse.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard Dr Ian Paterson was approached by a policewoman from the Child Protection Enforcement Agency in December 1996.
Inspector Beth Cullen had received anonymous information alleging child sexual abuse by six people who had been employed by the school.
Dr Paterson told the royal commission’s counsel assisting David Lloyd he deliberately attempted to mislead Inspector Cullen.
David Lloyd: “You were deliberately attempting to mislead Inspector Cullen about matters that were centrally important to her investigation”.
Dr Ian Paterson: “I accept that”.
Lloyd: “And you did so with intention of protecting those teachers about whom she was making the inquiries”.
Paterson: “That’s the way it appears”.
Under questioning, Dr Paterson confirmed he did not share what he knew with police.
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