Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues in Brisbane

UPDATE: A pedophile was given 24 hours to get off the grounds when he was dismissed from a Brisbane school after allegations he was watching naked boys heading to the showers.

Ped ‘watched naked boys going to shower’

PEDOPHILE Gregory Robert Knight was given 24 hours to get off school grounds when he was dismissed from Brisbane Boys College after allegations he was watching naked boys heading to the showers.

In 1980 Knight was employed at BBC as a music teacher at the boarding school.

But its former principal Graham Thomson said two respected senior students came to him with a complaint that Knight ordered the school borders to walk to the showers undressed with their towel over their shoulders while he watched.

There was also an allegation he invited a boy who was injured playing football to shower in his quarters.

“I took cognizance and gave pre-eminence to two well known truths: where there’s smoke there’s fire and prevention is better than cure,” Mr Thomson said. “I made certain he left the school in the next 24 hours.”

He said Knight offered no explanation when confronted with claims.

“He made no effort to offer an explanation and he certainly did nothing to refute the allegations,” Mr Thomson said.

“I was confounded by his inability or unwillingness to make comment.”

Mr Thomson said some time later he received a call from St Paul’s School principal Gilbert Case, who was considering hiring Knight, asking why he was dismissed.

The then-BBC principal said he replied Knight’s behaviour was unsupportive and he could not recommend him.

Knight earlier told the Commission that the boys were making up stories.

He said Mr Case asked him why he was dismissed from BBC and he explained it was due to the boys making up stories.

Knight was hired at St Paul’s where he worked from 1981 to 1984 when he was allowed to resign following allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards boys. He was convicted in 2005 of sexual offences against one student at St Paul’s in 1984.

The Royal Commission continues.

YOU’RE A DISGRACE - DELUSIONAL’

A CONVICTED pedophile says he was treated “unfairly” and was “annoyed and disgusted” by the schools which allowed him to resign instead of sacking him after allegations of sexual assault or improper behaviour towards students.

In explosive testimony via video link, there were cries of outrage in the hearing as the pedophile denied abusing many boys while a music teacher and applause when he was called a disgrace.

Former music teacher Gregory Robert Knight, who has been convicted of sexual offences against children in Queensland and Northern Territory, said claims he felt sexual urges towards children were “off the planet”.

Today when he took the stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane, he denied all allegations excluding those in the Northern Territory.

This is despite being convicted in 2005 of sexual assault of a child at St Paul’s in 1984 and an investigation by the education department in South Australia which found he sexually assaulted three boys, although there were no police charges.

MINISTER APPEARS: ‘We weren’t mates in the Aussie sense’

Knight said he accepted the 1994 Northern Territory convictions, but described many of them as trivial. The 15 charges relating to five boys included three of assault and two of carnal knowledge of 13-year-old boys who were his students.

Former music teacher and convicted paedophile Gregory Robert Knight giving evidence via a video link to the child sex abuse royal commission.

“In Darwin I went off the rails, I behaved badly,” Knight said. “I already admitted that my behaviour there was unforgivable.

“I have been thoroughly punished for it as I deserved.”

But there were cries of outrage in the courtroom as he continually denied other allegations, including for sexual abuse against a St Paul’s student in 1984 for which he was convicted and unsuccessfully appealed.

He said he offered to resign as a teacher in South Australia after the investigation found he had sexually assaulted three boys and that he sent the resignation before he was dismissed.

“I was annoyed and disgusted by the way I was treated,” he said.

“In South Australia, despite the fact that the police decided that there was nothing in the stories, and for good reason, I was taken through this whole Kangaroo Court process and then faced dismissal.”

He denied claims made to the Commission from several former St Paul’s students that he had abused them and said he had not heard of some of them.

Knight said St Paul’s principal Gilbert Case told him to resign or be dismissed following allegations from a mother in 1984 that he acted improperly towards students.

“I thought the whole thing was unfair,” he said. “I thought he should have stood up for me.”

He denied assaulting one St Paul’s student, known as BSG, despite having been convicted in 2005 in Queensland and failed to appeal the conviction, inferring he may appeal again.

Counsel assisting the Commission David Lloyd asked if he seriously thought that could happen.

“What, you are going to seek special leave 12 or 13 years after the event, is that the plan?” Mr Lloyd asked.

Knight replied: “You are interfering with a process of an appeal which may still be available to me”.

There was applause when lawyer Roger Singh, representing BSG, put a statement to Knight.

“You were charged, convicted and sentenced for horrific sexual violence against BSG,” he said.

“There was no successful appeal and for you to proclaim your innocence is absurd and delusional.

“You are a disgrace. It can’t be denied you are a pedophile.

“Nothing further.”

Despite this, Knight denied under questioning from another lawyer that he felt sexual urges towards young boys.

“I think you’re off the planet. The answer to that is rubbish. No,” he said.

Mr Lloyd objected to that line of questioning saying Knight’s continued denials were “unhelpful and grossly offensive”

MINISTER GAVE REFERENCE TO KNIGHT

SOUTH Australia’s former Education Minister rescinded Gregory Robert Knight’s sacking from teaching, despite an investigation finding the music teacher had sexually assaulted three boys and Crown law advice that dismissal was “the only possible course of action”.

Former Minister Donald Hopgood also gave him a reference, but defended his actions saying “my intentions were honourable, my thinking was naive”.

It was heard at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse this morning.

Knight was allowed to resign, instead of being dismissed, and went on to sexually abuse at least one boy in Queensland and several in the Northern Territory while using the reference from Dr Hopgood.

Investigations by the South Australian department of education found that Knight sexually assaulted three 13-year-old boys while at two camps while a teacher at Willunga High School in 1977.

The department recommended his dismissal in 1978, which was backed up advice from Crown solicitor that “the recommendation for dismissal represented the only possible course of action”.

Donald Hopgood at the The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Brisbane.

There was also advice that any other course of action would mean Knight could continue teaching at Willunga or another school.

Despite this Dr Hopgood, who was in a concert band with Knight, rescinded the dismissal and accepted a letter of resignation from Knight.

Dr Hopgood said Knight had told him he wanted to keep working, but not as a teacher, and the sacking could stop him finding work.

“I had a number of things of things running around my head,” he said.

“I was completely gobsmacked about all of this, the fact that this fellow I knew reasonably well and had reasonable contact with should have acted in that sort of way.

“There was even a sense of denial ... he indicated that he was not interested in further teaching and I naively believed him.”

He said he “presumed” the department of education would refer the findings of sexual assault to the teachers registration board and that it was not his responsibility as Minister, but accepted now he could have done more.

The reference, written on paperwork that indicated he was an MP but not Minister, was only meant to be in relation to his work in the concert band, Dr Hopgood told the commission.

“I thought we owed him something, the band, in view of the enormous amounts of work he put in for no pay over about a 12 month period at a time when we were a bit wonky as a band,” he said.

“My intentions were honourable, my thinking was naive and I sincerely regret having signed that letter.”

He accepted the reference “may” have led to Knight being employed at St Paul’s School at Bald Hills, Queensland, where at least one student was sexually assaulted.

But Dr Hopgood was less willing to accept the reference’s influence on Knight gaining employment at a Northern Territory school, where he sexually assaulted more boys.

“That’s a very long bow, very long bow. This is some years afterwards,” he said.

Dr Hopgood said he received conflicting advice from a public servant that sacking Knight may have been “acting harshly”.

SERIAL PED TO APPEAR

SERIAL paedophile Gregory Robert Knight will appear before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today.

The notorious sex offender abused children in different schools in South Australia and Queensland before finally being caught, sentenced and jailed in the Northern Territory, the Commission has heard.

In 1994 he was sentenced to eight year’s jail after pleading guilty to 15 counts involving sexual offences against boys, with three years non-parole period.

It was the first time he was charged with offences.

The sentencing remarks from Supreme Court of Northern Territory Justice Angel stated that before his arrest Knight was considered to be highly respected by his peers and as having “an exemplary record in teaching, education administration and music”.

“His prospects of rehabilitation are good,” Justice Angel said. “He has fully borne the ignomy of his wrongdoing. His sense of remorse and guilt is very deep and genuine.”

But these comments came before his crimes in Queensland during the 1980s came to light, for which he was eventually convicted.

There were also allegations in South Australia in 1977, but no police action due to lack of evidence, but he was forced to resign as a teacher.

He will appear before the Commission later today by audiovisual link.

Former South Australian Education Minister Donald Hopgood, who rescinded Knight’s dismissal from teaching to allow him to resign and wrote him a reference, will take the stand this morning.