Man Who Accused Dead Brisbane Grammar Teacher of Sex Abuse Speaks out

By Jorge Branco
Brisbane Times
October 9, 2015

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/man-who-accused-dead-brisbane-grammar-teacher-of-sex-abuse-speaks-out-20151008-gk4vib.html

The allegation dates back to before Greg Masters taught at Brisbane Grammar School. Photo: Brisbane Grammar School

The man who accused a senior teacher at one of Queensland's most exclusive private schools of historic child sex offences has told why he came forward after more than 30 years of silence.

Brenden Sheehan said the publicity around the child abuse royal commission, combined with the hope his words would encourage potential victims to come forward, prompted him to write a blog post accusing Brisbane Grammar School teacher Greg Masters of drugging him and sexually abusing him.

Mr Masters was found dead on Thursday morning. Photo: Supplied

BGS issued a statement saying it had received no complaints about the teacher in his 21-year tenure and it is understood the teacher denied the allegations.

Mr Sheehan's blog went live on Tuesday, the school became aware of it on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning Mr Masters was found dead in non-suspicious circumstances. Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

The 46-year-old expressed his extreme sympathy for the late teacher's family but stood by his decision to write the post.

The decision to post was a difficult one but one he felt compelled to make as the October 16 deadline loomed for victims to come forward to give evidence to the commission about their experiences at BGS and St Paul's School.

"I wanted to show some courage in talking about these matters because I know from my own experience ... how difficult it is to both personally confront and to talk about what's happened to you," he said.

"There's a massive sense of shame and guilt and embarrassment.

"And in making the decision to write this article, I wanted to show others that there was none of those things, there was no shame and embarrassment and guilt, that you could write about it and be honest.

"And I did so in the full knowledge that the royal commission deadlines were looming in the hope that if there were other victims they'd be emboldened to come forward."

Mr Masters' death was met with an outpouring of grief from the Brisbane Grammar School community as former students leapt to the English and geography teacher's defence.

Tributes flowed on old boys' pages and other online spaces frequented by Grammar students.

When the formerly anonymous blogger's allegations were aired in the media it triggered a fierce backlash, with many readers defending the late school teacher.

The accusations dated back more than 30 years to Sheehan and Masters' time as students at St Paul's School in Bald Hills. Sheehan was a 14-year-old scholarship student and his alleged abuser was a high-achieving 17-year-old, he said.

Mr Sheehan, a former union official who hasn't worked since 2012, said the older boy developed a friendship with him in 1983, which he later believed was grooming.

On two nights the following year, he allegedly woke up from a drug-induced sleep to find the 17-year-old abusing him but suspected there had been other instances.

The scared teenager went to a priest he said, but his complaints fell on deaf ears.

He said he emailed Mr Masters two years ago to say "we both knew what happened" and seek healing but received only "vitriol and malice" in return, and the email was deleted in an attempt to get over the experience.

Mr Sheehan, who writes extensively on politics and the media, said he needed alcohol to sleep until 2012, when he sought treatment for addiction and other issues.

It wasn't until 1999, when his daughter turned 13, that the one-time freelance journalist told his wife about what happened and another year before his parents knew why his grades and behaviour plummeted in his teenage years, he said.

Mr Sheehan said he gave a statement to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse last week and accepted a private hearing because the public hearings were full.

He said this was followed up by a call from police on Sunday or Monday, asking him whether he wanted to make a formal complaint, which he did.

The royal commission is due to hear about the experiences of former students at both schools.

This will include St Paul's' response to complaints about former teacher and convicted paedophile Gregory Knight, whom Mr Sheehan said also abused him.

It will also look into both schools' responses to complaints about Kevin Lynch, who was a counsellor at Grammar and staff member at St Paul's, who committed suicide in 1997 after being charged with sexual abuse of a St Paul's student.

Mr Sheehan never hoped or expected to see Mr Masters dead before the week was out but he did aim to provoke a reaction.

He was worried about being able to prove his claims beyond reasonable doubt as required in a criminal court but felt certain he could prove it to the "balance of probabilities" required in a civil setting.

"I thought that it would be difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the abuse that I know occurred, actually occurred, because there were no witnesses and it was 30 years ago," he said.

"I didn't want what had happened to me buried under that strict legal test."