Girls Who Reported Paedophile Teacher Admonished, Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission Hears

By Janet Fife-yeomans
Daily Telegraph
October 13, 2014

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/girls-who-reported-paedophile-teacher-admonished-child-sex-abuse-royal-commission-hears/story-fni0cx12-1227089963765?nk=9bd9d0e669a011da00cfb4b48d60c50f

Paedophile Kenneth John Sandilands pleaded guilty to sex assaults in 2000.

THREE girls who tried to alert their school to the fact that a teacher was a paedophile were admonished and their parents called to the school, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.

The girls were aged 11 and 12 when they reported their concerns that Kenneth Sandilands had a six-year-old girl on his lap at Northside Christian College and had been touching her inappropriately in 1987.

The headmaster, Neil Rookes, found that there were “some inconsistencies in their account but perceived an element of sincerity” but church pastor Keith Ingram found the girls had largely embellished the incident.

In the witness box today, the former senior pastor of the Northside Christian Church, Denis Smith, was quizzed about whether there was any way to look at the college’s handling of the claims other than “rising” to defend Sandilands.

Rev Smith agreed that he had been concerned about damage to the school’s reputation but he had relied on the recommendations of Mr Rookes, Pastor Ingram and a teacher who had interviewed the girls.

The commission has heard that he had agreed that Sandilands should be given a set of guidelines to comply with while the girls were given a “firm lecture” about “the dangers and implications of their stories.”

Rev Smith, who has been accused in the commission by a teacher of being a bully, creating an atmosphere of fear and banning female teachers from wearing trousers, said he was not a micromanager and had relied on the school principal in dealing with Sandilands.

Sandilands, 69, was jailed for two years in 2000 for sexually abusing eight girls at the school and another 26 months last month for abusing children at his previous school.

The commission is investigating the handling of child sex abuse allegations by Northside Christian College, Encompass Church and Australian Christian Churches, formerly Assemblies of God.