Former Knox Grammar Teacher Timothy Hawkes Reveals "Bizarre and Extraordinary" Sex Attack on a Pupil Was Not Reported to Police… Despite the Headmaster Knowing about It

By Sarah Carty
Daily Mail
February 26, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2969771/Former-Knox-Grammar-teacher-Timothy-Hawkes-reveals-bizarre-extraordinary-sex-attack-pupil-not-reported-police.html

A 'bizarre and extraordinary' incident where a boy at an elite Sydney school was sexually assaulted by someone wearing a balaclava was reported to the headmaster but not police, a hearing has been told.

Timothy Hawkes, a former teacher at Knox Grammar School on Sydney's north shore, was in charge of the boarding house where the incident happened in 1988.

On Thursday, Dr Hawkes, who is now headmaster of The Kings School, told a royal commission hearing he rang then headmaster Ian Paterson about 5am to report the incident which he described as 'bizarre and extraordinary and extremely worrying and even frightening'.

Timothy Hawkes (pictured), a former teacher at Knox Grammar School on Sydney's north shore, said he never saw police on the school grounds

It was not his role to ring police, he said, but he expected the headmaster would.

However, he was never interviewed by police nor, to his knowledge, were any of the boys.

Dr Hawkes said there was no history of intruders getting into the dorms.

Under questioning from counsel assisting the commission David Lloyd, he agreed that because of the layout of the boarding house and the fact that the intruder was wearing an older style Knox tracksuit it would suggest the person was an insider.

The witness said once he reported it to Dr Paterson his focus was on the pastoral care of the boy, known as ARN, and the other boys.

Dr Hawkes said he reported a 'bizarre' incident to the headmaster after a boy was sexually assaulted in his dorm room

He did not think it was his place to report it to police.

'I had every confidence that the matter would be dealt with by a very experienced headmaster and by his assistant (Stuart Pearson), who himself was a trained policeman.'

Mr Pearson is also listed to appear before the commission.

When Dr Hawkes was asked if his faith that the matter had been reported to police was undermined when no officers came to investigate, he said he still could not be certain his superiors had not taken the matter up with police.

One former Knox Grammer School teacher, Craig Treloar, told the inquest on Tuesday that he expected to be fired when he was caught showing pornographic images to the students at the school, but was instead shown leniency, the ABC reported.

Treloar - who was convicted on a number of charges including sexual abuse in 2010 - told the commission he expected to be sacked by the then principal Dr Ian Paterson after he admitted to showing students porn in 1987, but he was not reprimanded.

'I thought my career was over,' he told the hearing.

'I thought I'd be sacked.'

When Dr Hawkes was asked if his faith that the matter had been reported to police was undermined when no officers came to investigate, he said he still could not be certain his superiors had not taken the matter up with police

Dr Hawkes said there was no history of intruders getting into the dorms.Under questioning from counsel assisting the commission David Lloyd, he agreed that because of the layout of the boarding house and the fact that the intruder was wearing an older style Knox tracksuit it would suggest the person was an insider

'The decision was that obviously I would leave the boarding house, that I would lose my teaching position for a period of six months,' Treloar said.

But according to the former teacher he was never asked about the extent of the abuse, and after being told he was to lose his paid teaching position for a period, did not even have to serve that time immediately.

There was no mention of either an internal inquiry or involving the police.

The hearing continues.