Knox gave sex abuse teacher top reference

Sky News
March 3, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/03/03/knox-gave-sex-abuse-teacher-top-reference.html

Former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson gave a glowing reference to a religious teacher with prior child-sex convictions who resigned after being seen masturbating outside another school.

Dr Paterson, headmaster at the prestigious Sydney boys school from 1969 to 1998, has told a royal commission hearing that the reference he gave religious teacher Chris Fotis was 'grossly inappropriate'.

Fotis, a Knox old boy, had been hired without any reference check.

He left the school in 1989 and at that stage Dr Paterson was aware of a string of complaints against him.

One was that he was suspected of donning a balaclava, hiding under a dormitory bed and groping a 14-year-old boy.

The school's duty master Stuart Pearson told Dr Paterson that Fotis had been convicted of sexually assaulting two girls before he joined Knox and that he was verbally abusing boys.

Dr Paterson gave Fotis a reference describing him as 'enthusiastic for his job' and 'meticulous in the standards he requires from students'.

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Fotis, who failed to appear when he was called last week.

Dr Paterson said earlier on Tuesday that he had not reported another teacher for molesting a boy because he was 'not aware it was a crime'.

He said it did not enter his head to report the balaclava incident.

'It never entered any one of our heads' he said referring to duty master Mr Pearson and Tim Hawkes - the housemaster in charge of the Mac Neil boarding house where the incident happened.

Dr Paterson said he now agreed police should have been called.

He denied ever telling the boys that the intruder was an Asian man who had been arrested.

When pressed by counsel advising the commission David Lloyd, Dr Paterson said: 'I can assure you that controlling the reputation of the school never once entered my head'.