AUSTRALIA
The Age
Royal Commission into child sex abuse: Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson admits he could have stopped abuse
March 4, 2015
Rachel Browne and Melanie Kembrey
Former Knox Grammar School headmaster Ian Paterson told a royal commission that he could have stopped the child sexual abuse which pervaded the school over a 30-year period.
Dr Paterson agreed he had thousands of boys under his care during his time as headmaster between 1969 and 1998 but never attempted to find out about the impact of child sexual abuse despite multiple allegations coming to his attention as early as 1975.
Under questioning from counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, David Lloyd, Dr Paterson said he could have prevented boys from being abused.
“If you had done more to . . . make investigations into allegations of child sexual abuse that it is quite likely that a number of boys under your care would not have been abused,” Mr Lloyd said.
“Correct,” Dr Paterson replied.
In earlier evidence Dr Paterson admitted misleading a police officer from the child protection enforcement agency who quizzed him about child sex abuse claims at the school after receiving anonymous information in 1996.
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