BLOGGER Feels "No Guilt" after Brisbane Teachers Suicide

9 News
October 9, 2015

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/10/09/12/46/brisbane-teacher-suicide


A blogger who publically accused a teacher of sexually abusing him when they were both high school students said he feels "no guilt" after the Brisbane Grammar educator killed himself days after the claims were aired.

Greg Masters took his life yesterday, two days after political blogger Brendan Sheehan used his 'It's Not Normal Is It' website to accuse Mr Masters of molesting him when he was a 14-year-old student at St Paul's School at Bald Hills and Mr Masters was a 17-year-old student, the Courier Mail reports

Mr Sheehan called Mr Masters a "paedophilic predator who pretended to be my pal, but was really friend to no-one but the undertow, and took innocents like me in, and wouldn’t let go".

Mr Sheehan said he was not driven by enmity and only decided to air his claims publicly after he first approached Mr Masters privately two years ago and received a response "laced with vitriol, malice and denial".

The blogger said he wanted to provide an example to other victims of an abuse survivor speaking out. He said he did not feel responsible for Mr Masters' suicide.

"I am deeply saddened by the unfortunate decisions that my former schoolmate Greg Masters has made, both during his life, and in his election to end it," Mr Sheehan wrote.

"I extend my sincere and heartfelt sympathies to his family, both for the loss of their loved one, and in regard to the circumstances that have led to his death.

"I also extend my love and support to all victims of sexual crimes, and to the grieving members of Greg Masters family. I am deeply saddened by Greg's passing, and even more deeply saddened that the callous neglect of St Paul's School and the broader Anglican Church hierarchy has facilitated and fomented the events that have directly led to this tragedy.

"Upon deep reflection on the awful events of the past 24 hours, I feel no guilt or sense of personal blame for the actions that I have taken.

Mr Sheehan also posed a series of rhetorical questions about whether he should have spoken out.

"Was it preferable that I simply left my story untold, and suffered in silence while taking the chance that no other child would suffer as I had at the hands of a man I now knew was in a position of authority over children of a similar age to myself at the time Greg’s abuse occurred?

"How would I cope with the burden of guilt should a child at Brisbane Grammar be subjected to the abuse that I was?

"What if it were your child, and you subsequently discovered that I had known from personal experience of the man’s proclivities, but had stayed silent through fear of the consequences of profession of my knowledge?

"Would you be so smugly certain still?"

Next month the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will examine claims of abuse at Brisbane Grammar and St Paul's during the 1970s to the '90s.