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Royal commission: paedophile teacher given glowing reference
By Rachel Browne
A paedophile teacher received a glowing reference from Knox Grammar School praising his teaching skills, despite having indecently assaulted one student and physically assaulted two others, a royal commission has heard. Former student ASD complained in 1987 that teacher and resident housemaster Damian Vance indecently assaulted him while they were in a room under the Knox chapel. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told that then headmaster Dr Ian Paterson did not ask Vance to resign until 1989. Dr Paterson told Vance he should take a real estate job in Melbourne, saying "I think you know why", Vance told the commission. Vance said Dr Paterson was referring to the incident involving ASD. He told the commission he had previously hit two boys at the school, in 1985 and 1986. A copy of the reference Dr Paterson wrote for Vance in 1991, tendered in evidence, made no mention of the incidents, instead recommending him as a teacher. "Mr Vance is a strong teacher and personality," the reference read. "He is highly experienced and he knows the art and craft of teaching, both in the classroom and the sports field." Vance continued to teach until his arrest over the indecent assault in 2009. He was convicted and released on a good behaviour bond. The second day of the commission before a packed room heard further claims there was a paedophile ring operating at the prestigious boys school in Wahroonga. The commission was told teachers forced students as young as 12 to drink alcohol and watch pornography depicting paedophilia, bestiality and homosexual sex . A former boarder, given the name ASG, told the commission four former staff - Vance, Barrie Stewart, Craig Treloar and Adrian John Nisbett - would share cigarettes and alcohol with students while watching explicit films. ASG told the commission he was repeatedly assaulted by Treloar and Vance and had to stop the abuse by barricading himself into his cubicle at night. He said he fantasise about killing the teachers by injecting air into their veins. Former student Coryn Tambling said Treloar propositioned him for sex when he was 13 after showing him hard core pornography. Treloar continued to teach at the school for another 25 years, until his 2009 arrest over multiple sexual offences. In evidence, Mr Tambling said he believed former Knox headmaster Dr Ian Paterson ignored child abuse at the school. "I was certain that he allowed all these paedophiles to fester at the school," he said. Dr Paterson, headmaster of the school from 1969 to 1998, has been called as a witness at the public hearing. Another former student, Scott Ashton, now 44, told the royal commission he was paid $1000 to perform sex acts at a 1986 party on the central coast attended by 10 Knox teachers and two students. His evidence was read by his friend Gretel Pinniger, also known as the dominatrix Madame Lash. "It was apparent to me that there was a large paedophile cohort at the school," his statement said. Counsel for Knox, Geoffrey Watson SC asked Mr Ashton if he was fabricating the story, a suggestion denied by both Mr Ashton and Ms Pinniger. According to the evidence tendered before the commission, Mr Ashton was molested by two teachers, Barrie Stewart and Bruce Barratt when he was a young student. The commission heard when art teacher Bruce Barratt died suddenly in the mid-1980s, Knox commemorated him with an inscription on a school gate: "He touched us all." The plaque has since been removed. The hearing, before Justice Jennifer Coate, continues.
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