August 17, 2018
Trinity Grammar to Join Child Sex Abuse Redress Scheme After $500,000 Payout
Melbourne private school Trinity Grammar says it will join the national redress scheme for victims of institutional child sex abuse after it paid $500,000 to a former student who was abused by a teacher in the 1970s.
Melbourne private school Trinity Grammar says it will join the national redress scheme for victims of institutional child sex abuse after it paid $500,000 to a former student who was abused by a teacher in the 1970s.
The scheme was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and caps payouts to child abuse survivors at $150,000.
The move comes after The Age this week revealed that Trinity had settled with a former student for just over $500,000.
The ex-student, now in his 50s, was abused by senior teacher Christopher Howell twice in 1973.
He told his parents, who reported it to the school a year later. The school ignored their report.
Other former students have since come forward to allege Howell abused them in the years before and — crucially — after the 1974 report.
Another three former teachers have been accused of sexually abusing children at Trinity in the 1970s.
Howell took his own life in 2016, days before he was due to face court over an indecent assault charge against another student.
In what the school has now dubbed an “error of judgement”, then headmaster Dr Michael Davies and his deputy Rohan Brown paid tribute to Howell in a letter to the school community in which they called him a “hero”.
Both the principal and deputy knew Howell had been charged with the sex crime when they wrote the tribute.
In an email to the Anglican school’s community on Friday afternoon, recently-appointed school council chair John Gillam and new headmaster Phil De Young said they had resolved to participate in the redress scheme.
“The decision to register with the NRS is a clear statement about where we sit on the issue of child sexual abuse,” Mr Gillam and Mr De Young said in the email.
“It is abhorrent, and we acknowledge the catastrophic impact it has on the lives of those abused, and their friends and families. There is no place for it at Trinity and, indeed, anywhere in our society.”
They called Howell a child abuser and repeated their apology for the 2016 tribute letter.
“In coming to this decision, School Council has considered deeply how Trinity has dealt with instances of child abuse at the school in the past, and how the school’s response could be improved,” Mr Gillam and Mr De Young said.
“We believe that the NRS provides an appropriate mechanism for victims to have their experience acknowledged and redress provided as they enter a healing process.”
Geelong Grammar, another school facing a string of historical sexual abuse claims, has also indicated its support for the scheme.
The Anglican Church, the Catholic Church, Scouts Australia, the Salvation Army and the YMCA have opted in to the scheme.
Critics of the scheme, including personal injury lawyers, say institutions believe the scheme will cost them less than if claimants sue for compensation in court.
But they also say the scheme could be a positive step for survivors who could not go through the court process.
The Federal Government estimates the average payment would be about $76,000.