AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Royal commission into sex abuse: Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson ‘did not realise groping was a crime’
March 3, 2015
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
The former headmaster of Knox Grammar School Ian Paterson did not realise that it was a crime for a teacher to grope and sexually proposition a student, a royal commission has heard.
Dr Paterson, who ran the school for almost three decades, also admitted he did not regularly conduct background checks on teachers employed at the elite boys school, nor was he aware of child protection laws introduced in the 1980s.
Appearing before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Dr Paterson admitted he was an “abject failure”.
Under cross examination by counsel assisting David Lloyd, Dr Paterson also admitted he provided glowing references to teachers whom he knew or suspected had inappropriate dealings with students.
Dr Paterson told the commission that a student complained to him in 1989 that teacher Damien Vance had groped him and propositioned him while they were smoking under the Knox chapel.
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