AUSTRALIA
Telegraph (UK)
Sydney school head apologises for ‘abject failure’ over decades of sexual abuse
By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney 03 Mar 2015
A headmaster of one of Australia’s most exclusive boys’ schools has admitted he should have known about decades of sexual abuse that occurred under his watch, describing his failure to report an accused paedophile teacher as a “silly mistake”.
Following a week of graphic testimony about a culture of paedophilia and cover-ups involving at least eight teachers at Knox Grammar in Sydney, Dr Ian Paterson, the headmaster from 1969 to the 1998, finally took the stand at a royal commission into sexual abuse of children.
He proceeded to shock the public gallery when he said he did not immediately take a student’s claims of sexual abuse seriously because the fifteen-year-old was a “drama boy… who could build up situations”.
Asked about the student’s claim that he was molested, Mr Paterson said: “I was not aware that it was a crime.”
The shocking revelations about Knox have dominated headlines for days and prompted parents of current students to tie ribbons to the school’s wrought iron gates this week as a tribute to the numerous victims.
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