‘Churchie’ teacher Gavin Rae Vance allegedly attacked boys in sadistic rampage

A depraved teacher who allegedly drugged and raped young students during a decades-long reign of terror at elite Brisbane school Churchie is still celebrated as a “hero” by some old boys. Victims want the school to face up to its ”disturbing” past.

A depraved teacher allegedly able to wage a decades-long reign of terror at an elite Brisbane school – drugging and raping young students – has been recognised as “a pillar of the staff” in the college’s official history.

A Saturday Courier-Mail investigation has laid bare one of Anglican Church Grammar School’s darkest secrets – that boarding master and German teacher Gavin Rae Vance allegedly attacked numerous boys in a sadistic rampage that allegedly led to a string of suicides.

One of his victims says Vance was “protected by a cult-like culture” at Churchie during the 1960s and ’70s and even today some old boys still celebrate him as a “hero”, while the school has praised him as central to its “golden years”.

The revelations have sparked demands for the East Brisbane school – which has produced some of Queensland’s most esteemed figures including Governor Paul de Jersey – to finally confront the scandal and help victims.

Gavin Rae Vance.

Former headmaster Harry Roberts.

A 57-year-old father of two – who is suing for damages after he was drugged and gang-raped at age 13 by Vance, another boarding master Harry Wippell and a police officer – wants the school to own what happened to him and others.

His lawyer Maria Skordou, of Restore Legal, this week said the abuse was “endemic”.

“Based on the information we have received, Vance, together with Wippell, was sexually abusing boys at the school, with incidents dating back to the 1960s,” Ms Skordou said.

“It is incumbent on the school to acknowledge the pain suffered by each of its former students affected,” she said.

“It is a torment which never goes away, and it is imperative the school acts decently and responsibly towards the victims of these vile acts, children entrusted into its care by their parents.”

The Anglican Church Southern Queensland confirmed one legal claim in relation to alleged sexual abuse by Vance and records of two anonymous calls to Churchie in 1993 and 2002.

“Every claim of abuse is taken seriously by the church and survivors of abuse who come forward will be supported,” a spokesperson said.

Old boys, including former high-ranking politicians, judges and business leaders, have told of a sinister web of paedophilia that existed at the school for at least six decades.

The Courier-Mail has learned it was common knowledge within the Churchie community Vance – employed until his death in 1979 – was a violent man who showered with boys, washing their bottoms to ensure they were “properly clean”, and held “tea parties” involving lewd acts.

Some parents warned their children, when packing them off to the expensive boarding school, to steer clear of Vance, such was the word at the time of his heinous deeds, none of which were reported to police until 2019.

Gavin Ray Vance.

Gavin Rae Vance.

The 57-year-old victim, who shared his story in The Courier-Mail on June 5, said the fallout from publicly taking on the 109-year-old school had been “disturbing”.

“Many old boys are extremely protective but I wonder where the line is – people proudly identify as Churchie old boys but I am now starting to think, did I belong to a cult?”

“It certainly seems so, because Vance and other paedophiles have been protected by a cult-like culture that puts the school’s reputation ahead of all else.”

Another man, abused in the 1960s, said if then headmaster Harry Roberts had acted swiftly to remove Vance and other paedophiles, more grown men would today be able to hug their sons.

“There are so many victims unable to throw their arms around their sons,” the 71-year-old said. “Yet the school closes ranks – what will it take to accept the awful truth?”

The Courier-Mail can also reveal that in May this year, old boys were invited to contribute to a display “celebrating” Vance at the Barcaldine Museum.

Vance, born in the Central West Queensland town in 1925 to an influential family, was described by a member of the graduating class of 1968 as “a local hero”, due to his tertiary education accomplishments.

Inviting peers to send material to the museum (which has an existing display honouring the pioneering Vances), the man said Vance was the best teacher he’d had.

“Whatever his many eccentricities and failings, in his own way he inspired many of us with his enthusiasm and depth of knowledge,” he wrote in a group email seen by The Courier-Mail.

“If you don’t have happy memories and still want to contribute, there are no sugar coating requirements. Do consider, however, the old adage about speaking ill of the dead.”

When the man currently suing Churchie read the email, he replied by sharing the life-altering impact of his assault by the “cruel and sadistic paedophile”.

“I am one of the ‘lucky’ victims,” he said, referring to four students from the 1970s whose later suicides he linked to abuse by Vance.

The man offered the email recipients, who might criticise or “remain deafeningly silent”, to meet him in person to discuss what happened to him in 1977.

No-one took up his offer but one old boy’s reply was to ask who had “leaked” the original email.

“I couldn’t believe it,” the man said.

“How long do they want to sweep things under the carpet; has the Royal Commission (into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2013-2017) taught them nothing?”

Vance came to Churchie in his mid-twenties after serving in army intelligence in World War II and graduating from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in philosophy.

Eschewing offers to teach at American universities, he took a boarding master position in the all-boys’ school.

Vance had been a boarder himself in his youth, at Brisbane Boys’ College.

In the commemorative book Churchie: A Centenary Portrait, published by the school in 2011, Vance is recognised as one of the “pillars of the teaching staff”.

“He could be erratic in his moods and his boarders learned to be wary,” author Peter Hempenstall wrote.

“Some claimed Vance was a sadist … in his treatment of students but there is a more general and rueful affection for Vance as a sad enigma.”

According to the book, Vance cooked for senior boarders from time to time, and “descended into a single man’s pipe-smoking loneliness, hardened by alcohol and addiction to cough medicines”.

In an assessment of life at Churchie during the 1960s under headmaster Roberts, Mr Hempenstall said sex education was neglected.

“Homosexuality and the very notion of homoerotic impulses were never mentioned.

“Boarders had their own ways. There are stories of masturbation races in the boarding houses.”

While Vance “evoked mixed emotions among the boys and teaching colleagues alike”, Churchie’s “golden years were to a degree attributable to” him and other long-term staff, including (Frederick Roy) Hoskins.

Hoskins was jailed for 16 months in 2004 for sexually assaulting boys from 1947 until 1955. He taught at the school until 1983.

Other past staff convicted of historical child sex offences include maths teacher Hamilton William Nation Leslie. He was charged with multiple counts of indecent assault in 2002, plead guilty and received a 12-month suspended sentence.

That same year, former assistant bursar John Litton Elliott, was sentenced to 7½ years’ jail for ­molesting boys between 1970 and 1973.

In 2003, William Whitelock, a convicted paedophile when employed as a gymnastics coach from 1989 to 1992, received a three-year sentence for sexually assaulting students.

Robert Sharwood.

Harry Wippell.

Former Anglican priest Robert Sharwood pleaded guilty in 2006 to multiple sex offences between 1985 and 2001 and was jailed for nearly three years.

Ex-boarding master Christopher Klemm pleaded guilty in 2010 to sexually abusing a student between 1985 and 1988. He was jailed for five years.

Harry Wippell was committed to stand trial in 2010 over the alleged 1967 sexual assault of a 12-year-old but died before the matter went before a jury. Churchie later said it could neither “defend nor condone” Wippell’s behaviour.

In 2015 Churchie backflipped on naming a $23 million building after Roberts following an outcry from alumni who said they were sexually abused when Roberts was in charge.

The Rescue Churchie group of old boys was subsequently set up to restore the reputation of Roberts as “a revered educationalist and beloved headmaster”.