AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
October 13, 2014
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
A paedophile teacher continued to work in the classroom for six years after allegations of sexual abuse were first made against him, a royal commission has heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told that jailed teacher Kenneth Sandilands was eventually allowed to resign from his position due to his failing eyesight.
At the time he left Northside Christian College in 1992, the Victorian school had received claims of abuse involving nine young children. The commission has been told up to 30 children were abused by Sandilands at the school.
Sandilands was jailed in 2000 for the offences committed at Northside Christian College and last month was sentenced to a further 26 months in prison for sexual offences committed at another Victorian school, St Pauls Anglican Primary School, between 1970 and 1974.
The commission was told Northside Christian Centre, which ran the school, did not check Sandilands’ references, instead relying on an endorsement by the Victorian education department.
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