AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
[with video]
November 3, 2015
Jorge Branco
Journalist
Victims repeatedly told headmasters at two prestigious Brisbane private schools at the centre of historic sex abuse scandals they were abused by paedophile staffers, a royal commission has heard.
In his opening address to two weeks of hearings in Brisbane, counsel assisting David Lloyd on Tuesday laid out a long list of evidence expected to come from several former students and parents at St Paul’s School and Brisbane Grammar School.
Among the most damning claims, the royal commission is expected to hear former St Paul’s school headmaster Gilbert Case was told of concerns regarding now-convicted paedophile Gregory Robert Knight’s conduct with boys before hiring him in 1981.
The inquiry heard even after Mr Case decided to accept Knight’s resignation in 1984 after repeated complaints of sexual abuse, he wrote a glowing reference for Knight’s application to teach in the Northern Territory.
Knight was subsequently convicted of child sexual abuse in both Queensland and the Northern Territory. He had already been forced to resign over complaints of sexual abuse at a South Australian school before coming to Queensland but it appeared that information wasn’t shared with Queensland authorities.
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