John XXIII: ANU college to appeal decision in $420k negligence case that exposed hazing, drinking, rape

Australian National University “frat house” college, John XXIII, will appeal the decision in a damning ACT Supreme Court case that revealed its culture of hard drinking and sexual misconduct.

John XXIII College at the Australian National University in Canberra.

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The Australian National University’s notorious John XXIII College will lodge a last-minute appeal against a damning Supreme Court judgment that exposed its “frat house” culture of hard drinking and sexual misconduct.

The decision, handed down a month ago, saw a woman awarded more than $420,000 after she was raped in an alleyway near Canberra nightclub Mooseheads, following one of the college’s many unsanctioned booze-ups.

The decision to appeal comes despite the college board saying it “extends its sympathy to the students affected”.

The college’s legal team argued the woman was at least partly to blame for being raped because she was drinking.

ACT Supreme Court Justice Michael Elkaim found many of the students were so drunk on the ill-fated night they were vomiting in the college’s hallways before leaving for the first drinking “hole” of the so-called “pub golf” event.

“There were bins for alcohol and bins for vomiting. People vomited into sinks even though they had been told not to,” he said. “The same applied to urination.”

First year women were made to get on their knees while they had goon poured into their mouths in a shameful hazing ritual at the ANU’s John XXIII College, the ACT Supreme Court heard.

Much of Justice Elkaim’s criticism was directed at the college’s then head, Geoff Johnston, who, he found, told the rape victim it was a “concern how (she) managed to get that drunk”, and that it was unlikely the man had raped her because “sometimes when boys are drunk they … are underperformers”.

Mr Johnston has since “ceased his duties as head of college”, the college board said following Justice Elkaim’s decision.

The college’s barrister, Jack Pappas, told the court on Thursday appeal documents were being finalised and would be filed before the appeal period expired at close of business.

The proposed grounds of appeal were not aired in court on Thursday.

The court also heard the college did not take up a series of settlement offers of between $850,000 and $400,000, plus costs.

The resident’s association, which settled with the woman in the first few days of the trial, and whose leaders were the main instigators of heavy drinking and hazing, said it had a “zero-tolerance attitude on both hazing and sexual assault or harassment”.