Uniting Church head did not destroy Knox sex abuse files, Royal Commission hears

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
March 2, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/uniting-church-head-did-not-destroy-knox-sex-abuse-files-royal-commission-hears-20150302-13swrv.html

Former Knox Grammar School Headmaster Dr Ian Paterson, who is due to appear at he Royal Commission on Tuesday. Photo by Nick Moir

A senior Uniting Church figure denied destroying crucial documents relating to sexual abuse at Knox Grammar School, instead blaming pedophile teacher Adrian John Nisbett, a royal commission has heard.

James Mein, former moderator of the Uniting Church in Australia, synod of NSW and ACT, and an unnamed solicitor were implicated in the disappearance of documents in a series of emails sent by the church's insurance manager in 2009.

"The solicitor who drafted this is the one who has been advising the school to destroy documents, with Jim's assistance," Dwane Freehely wrote in an email tendered in evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr Mein told the commission he did not destroy the documents and nor did anyone involved in a series of meetings held by the church, school council and lawyers after sex abuse allegations were reported to police in 2009.

"We shared that concern that we wanted to address the human factors of this whole sordid affair with all the abuse that had come to light and . . . I don't recall anyone saying we should be destroying records," he said.

The commission heard he was aware that records had been tampered with.

"We had been concerned . . . about a lot of the staff and student records being what we felt were sanitised," he said.

"Somebody was actually going through there destroying documents that weren't there."

When asked who was the main suspect, he named long-serving former English teacher Nisbett who had access to school files as he had been preparing a document about Knox's history.

"It is Adrian Nisbett in his role as executive assistant had access to the file room," he said.

"We found it strange that there were key documents that incriminated certain people not on the files."

Nisbett was later convicted of multiple sex offences involving three students and received a suspended sentence.

He cannot be summonsed to appear at the commission because he is in South Africa.

In other evidence presented at the commission on Monday, former general duties master Stuart Pearson accused former headmaster Ian Paterson of lying to students about an incident in which a masked man sexually assaulted a boy at the Wahroonga school in 1988.

Mr Pearson told the commission Dr Paterson told the boys the matter had been reported to police and an Asian man had been apprehended.

When Mr Pearson contacted Hornsby Police to check how the case was progressing, he told the commission that police said no report had been made.

A former student, given the pseudonym AST, told the commission he was at the boarding house on the night the so-called "balaclava man" assaulted the year 8 boy.

He said he recalled Dr Paterson saying a "mentally ill Knox old boy" was responsible for the attack.

Dr Paterson is expected to give evidence at the hearing, before Justice Jennifer Coate, on Tuesday.