Headmaster of One of Australia's Top Private Schools "Paid a Teacher Who Sexually Abused a Student for Years to Retire Early to Avoid an Official Complaint Being Lodged against Him"

By Lucy Mae Beers
Daily Mail
September 7, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3225324/Headmaster-one-Australia-s-private-schools-paid-teacher-sexually-abused-student-retire-early-avoid-complaint.html

A former headmaster at a Victorian private school paid off a teacher to retire early after his sexual misconduct was brought to light.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse heard that headmaster Nicholas Sampson, paid maths teacher Jonathan Harvey $64,348 in 2004 to vacate his position.

A few years later, Harvey, now 75, pleaded guilty to abusing a student and was jailed for ten months.

'He suggested that he'd been led to believe that, if I retired early, there would not be – a formal complaint would not be made, but he wasn't of course certain of that,' Harvey told the commission on Monday, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

A former headmaster paid teacher Jonathan Harvey (pictured right) to retire early to avoid a complaint after he sexually abused a student

Harvey was a maths teacher a the prestigious Victorian school, Geelong Grammar

It was also found that Harvey was allowed to have students stay with him overnight on the school's campus, even though the headmaster before Mr Sampson heard a complaint that Harvey had touched a students genitals.

He denies he abused this particular student, saying he was massaging the student's back following a sporting injury.

'He obviously did feel uncomfortable and I'm not quite sure why,' he said in the inquiry.

Harvey was found guilty of abusing a another former student, known at BLF, more than 37 years ago.

It was also found that Harvey was allowed to have students stay with him overnight on the school's campus

Harvey was found guilty of abusing a former student, known at BLF in the inquiry, more than 37 years ago

The inquiry heard that prior to his sentence, Mr Sampson suggested that Harvey retire to avoid a formal complaint being made