Christian Pastor Faked Phone Call after Sex Abuse Complaint, Inquiry Told

By Michael Safi
The Guardian
October 10, 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/10/christian-pastor-faked-call-after-abuse-complaint-inquiry-told

The royal commission is investigating the way Australian Christian Churches, formerly the Assemblies of God, responded to allegations of abuse. Photograph: Royal commission, Jeremy Piper/AAP Image

A six-year-old girl who complained she was being sexually abused by her teacher watched a Christian pastor make a phone call to inform her mother, only to discover later he was faking the call, a royal commission has heard.

Emma Fretton began giving evidence on Friday that she was physically and sexually abused for more than four years from the age of six while a student at Northside Christian College in Bundoora in Melbourne’s north-east.

Fretton told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that a teacher, Kenneth Sandilands, would type out lewd stories about her family on a portable typewriter and make her sign the pages.

“He would make me repeat the stories and agree they were true,” she said, adding that if she denied the stories or asked him to stop, he would beat her with a wooden paddle.

She was also touched inappropriately by the teacher, along with at least six other girls.

The commission heard that at least 63 students considered joining a civil action against Sandilands, who was jailed for two years for indecent assault in 2001.

The royal commission is investigating the way Australian Christian Churches, formerly the Assemblies of God, responded to allegations of abuse against Sandilands and two other men.

Fretton said she raised the abuse with officials at the school and the Northside Christian Centre – now Encompass Church – early on, and was told the school “know what [Sandilands] is like”, and assured her “he will get fired and he won’t be your teacher anymore”.

“I was told not to say anything to anyone,” she said.

Fretton said she watched a former pastor at the school, the Rev Denis Smith, make a phone call to her mother to attend a meeting about the abuse, but was told “she couldn’t make it”.

Later Fretton said she discovered: “My mother had not been told by the school.”

Sandilands was assigned as the victim’s teacher for the next two years. Fretton continued to raise complaints about his abuse, but said she was told the school would “look into it”.

Five students including Fretton commenced civil proceedings against Sandilands and the school in 2000, but one committed suicide before the settlement. Fretton herself collapsed during a mediation session. She was eventually paid $225,000 compensation including legal costs.

“For me, as a six-year-old girl, going to school was the scariest thing,” she said. “I can’t trust people because I’m scared. I’ve got a son, and he goes to creche, and I’m even scared with them.”

She said the abuse had “destroyed her faith in the Lord”.

The head of Encompass Church, pastor John Spinella, said in a statement: “The devastating effects of child sexual abuse could not be clearer than in the evidence presented to the royal commission today.

“Emma Fretton gave witness to her pain and suffering which continues,” he said.

“The criminal acts of Kenneth Sandilands robbed her and others of their innocence and trust. All things that children with the promise of life ahead of them are unquestionably entitled to.

“On behalf of Encompass Church, I acknowledge what happened to Emma and other victims of Kenneth Sandilands at Northside Christian College. I apologise to them for all past failings and the pain and suffering they endured,” he said.