Sex abuse royal commission: Geelong Grammar student has 'no memory' of repeated abuse at school

By Timna Jacks
Sydney Morning Herald
September 2, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/national/sex-abuse-royal-commission-geelong-grammar-student-has-no-memory-of-repeated-abuse-at-school-20150902-gjda05.html

Luke Benson, who testified at the royal commission that he was abused while a student at Geelong Grammar's Highton campus. Photo by Pat Scala

Philip Constable testified that he was sexually abused most nights between 1956 to 1958 at Geelong Grammar's Bostock House campus. Photo by Pat Scala

A Geelong Grammar School student who was abused up to 40 times by a school tutor he considered a "father figure" has no memory of the abuse, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has heard.

Luke Benson, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, attended the school from the late 1980s to early 1990s, was asked to attend Prahran police station in 2005. There, he was informed that one of the school's house assistants, Philippe Vincent Trutmann, had admitted to sexually abusing him 30 to 40 times over a two-year period.

"It is confusing to have no recollection of the abuse," Me Benson said. "I have no memory of this happening and I inquired whether it was a mistake.

"The police told me that Trutmann had reviewed school yearbooks and identified from photographs the boys who he had abused. I think this was the worst day of my life."

Trutmann was sentenced to up to six-and-a-half years in jail in 2005, for sexually abusing 40 young male boarders at the school's Highton campus between 1985 and 1995.

He was also charged with possessing 485 images and 159 videos of child pornography.

Mr Benson recalls Trutmann giving him back rubs when he was aged 11, and thought this was "the extent of the intimate contact".

"As an 11-year-old, this did not alarm me because it was human contact from an adult showing care and love."

Mr Benson has lambasted the school's handling of the issue, claiming he has not been contacted by the school beyond receiving a building fund donation request, and a letter urging victims to of abuse to contact the royal commission.

"The email said the school was doing everything they could to help victims and their families. I was physically sick as a result of reading this."

Another victim, Philip Constable, said he was sexually abused most nights between 1956 to 1958 by school teacher Graham Leslie Dennis at Bostock House.   

He recalls Dennis coming into his bed and fondling his penis, as well as his own. Dennis would tell Mr Constable that he loved him.

In about 1959 or 1960, he disclosed the abuse to the headmaster and was told Dennis was sacked. 

The experience has created an inescapable "hell", he said. "There was no light. It was like being buried alive."

It was also revealed at the commission that former headmaster of the school, John Lewis, was told that a teacher, Jonathan Harvey, was abusing a student in the early 1980s. Yet the teacher remained at the school's Corio campus until 2004.

The victim, called BKM, and his mother, known as BIA, said Mr Lewis told them they needed to be "careful" when they disclosed the abuse, as a similar accusation had been levelled at a teacher at another school, and that teacher had suicided.

The mother, who worked at the school, said she felt the headmaster was accusing them of being "untruthful" and she did not believe that he had investigated the incident.

"My understanding was that it needed to be kept quiet and that, if I said anything further, my job would be threatened."

Mr Lewis apologised to the victim and mother through his lawyer, Michael Cahill.

Harvey pleaded guilty in 2007 to 10 counts of sexual abuse and gross indecency with a male student.

Geelong Grammar was established in 1855 and is Australia's largest co-ed boarding school, with more than 1500 students.

The hearing continues.