AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Mazoe Ford
The former headmaster of Sydney’s Knox Grammar School “failed to prioritise the welfare of boys over the reputation of the school” by covering up allegations of child sexual abuse, a royal commission has found.
The report on last year’s hearing at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse examining Knox Grammar was released today.
The 2015 hearing also looked into the experiences of 12 survivors, as well as the response from the school and the Uniting Church of Australia, to concerns raised about several teachers between 1970 and 2012.
At the hearing, Dr Ian Paterson said that during his 29 years as headmaster he was only aware of one instance of sexual abuse involving one teacher.
However, the royal commission found that was “clearly incorrect” and that Dr Paterson was also aware of allegations in relation to three other teachers, as well as an affair between a teacher and a student, and an incident where a boarding school student was sexually assaulted by someone in a balaclava.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.