Former Knox Teacher Chris Fotis Believed to Have Fled Nelson Bay Five Days Ago
By Rick Feneley
A former Knox Grammar teacher who failed to appear at a royal commission into child abuse this week has not been seen near his Nelson Bay home for days. An arrest warrant was issued for Chris Fotis when he did not show up to give evidence at the royal commission on Tuesday. The 52-year-old, who taught religious education, was asked to leave Knox in September 1989 after he was arrested for masturbating outside a school at North Ryde. The commission has heard he was also suspected of molesting a student while wearing a balaclava in 1988 or 1989. The attacker, wearing a Knox tracksuit, had hid under a bed before groping a student in a boarding house at the school. He has been living in Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, and was acting as secretary of the Nelson Bay Tennis Club last year. "If I knew about this, he would have been gone long ago," club president Rod Stubbs said. The club has more than 100 juniors but Mr Stubbs said Mr Fotis had "never had any contact with any of the kids … he had no dealings with the kids". Police had contacted Mr Stubbs but club members only learned that Knox old boys had accused Mr Fotis of sexual assault when the allegations appeared in the news from the royal commission this week. "He didn't have too many friends," Mr Stubbs said. "He was only secretary of the club for three months and then we asked him to step down. It was unrelated to this, but he just didn't get on with people."
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