AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Nicole Chettle
Tue 14 Oct 2014
Three young schoolgirls were reprimanded for reporting the behaviour of a teacher who was later jailed for the indecent assault of children at a Melbourne school, an inquiry has heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into how Melbourne’s Northside Christian College handled complaints made against Kenneth Sandilands, who was a teacher from 1983 to 1992.
In December 1986 the school principal, Ken Ellery, was made aware of allegations against Sandilands and found there was no case to answer.
The commission heard the principal wrote to the school’s senior pastor, Denis Smith, and said he was prepared to defend Sandilands “to the hilt”.
In March the next year, three girls in years five and six said the teacher had placed younger girls from years one and two on his knee and touched them on the lower stomach and legs.
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