September 20, 2019

Geelong College pays $1 million to sexual assault victim

A 63-year-old man abused by a teacher at Geelong College more than 50 years ago has received a $1 million settlement from the exclusive school just hours before the matter was due to reach court.

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A 63-year-old man abused by a teacher at Geelong College more than 50 years ago has received a $1 million settlement from the exclusive school just hours before the matter was due to reach court.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he was repeatedly abused in his first year at the boarding school by housemaster Colin McPherson at the Newtown campus in 1968.

In 1996 he told the school, which is now affiliated with the Uniting Church, of his sexual abuse at the hands of McPherson but was told by then principal Pauline Turner that the college would not accept any liability.

The school never referred the allegations to police, but in 2004 agreed to pay for 10 counselling sessions on the conditions the victim sign a confidentiality agreement and waive his common law rights.

After years of denials, lawyers for Geelong College made the offer about two hours before the Supreme Court trial was to begin on Monday.

The man, who now lives in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, said he felt immense relief after 50 years of torment.

“I hope my case gives strength for other victims as this was the sole reason I kept fighting for justice. It feels fantastic to have stood up for myself after being pushed around and silenced for so many years,” he said.

He urged other victims of abuse at the school to “push hard” for justice.

On Tuesday afternoon, Geelong College confirmed the case had been settled. Principal Dr Peter Miller acknowledged the suffering of former students.

“The college is truly sorry for any harm to former students. Today, we are committed to doing what we can to support survivors and to ensure such incidents do not happen again,” Dr Miller said.

The settlement on Monday is expected to trigger further legal claims from victims of sexual assault at the school that date back to the 1960s and involve up to five former teachers.

McPherson was eventually convicted of child sex offences in Queensland and has since died.

Lawyer Michael Magazanik from Rightside Legal said the school should “hang its head in shame” after coercing his client to accept a deal in 2004 that was “improper, illegal and would not hold up in court”.

“And the price tag for Geelong College’s disgraceful failures is over $1 million,” Mr Magazanik said.

He said the school knew it had paedophiles on staff, and in one case, was told that a teacher was a paedophile before it hired him.

Last week, the school notified current and former students that it had joined the National Redress Scheme, which gives sexual abuse victims access to compensation of up to $150,000.

“We have written to the college community on a number of occasions throughout this period to raise awareness of this important issue, to apologise publicly to those who have been harmed, and to demonstrate a willingness to support survivors towards redress, in all its forms,” the school wrote on July 26.

“Some matters have not been resolved using this approach. This means we are expecting a small number of cases to escalate to the court system in the coming weeks and months.”

Read the full article in The Age here