Cranbourne High School students urged to come forward over historic abuse allegations

Former Cranbourne High School students are being asked to come forward with information about historic child sex abuse.

Former Cranbourne High School students have been asked to come forward with information of historic child sex abuse. Picture: iStock

Former students who attended a school in Melbourne’s southeast are being asked to come forward with information about historic child sex abuse.

Students who attended Cranbourne High School between 1980 and 1988 are being asked to speak out about allegations of abuse involving a former teacher.

Maurice Blackburn, who is investigating the claims, said there was understood to be at least three victims.

At this stage, the law firm is representing one victim.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed earlier this month almost 300 former students of 180 Victorian schools were pursuing historic child abuse claims, with each victim potentially due to receive a multimillion-dollar payout.

These include claims against more than 70 state schools.

John Rule, who is a principal lawyer at Maurice Blackburn and leads its Victorian abuse law practice, which specialises in helping survivors of childhood abuse, said it was extremely important for anyone with information to come forward.

“I run these cases all the time and we deal with defendants including the Education Department and it can be very difficult from our clients perspective to piece together what’s happened back then because defendants do guard this information quite jealously,” he said.

Mr Rule said allegations of historic abuse at the school had a “catastrophic effect” on one of the victim’s lives.

“The victim only recently felt in a position to try to pursue this matter civilly.

“It’s so important that if anyone knows anything big or small that they come forward. It can make a huge difference to our client’s case.”

In April, Maurice Blackburn also asked former students who attended primary schools including St Joseph’s School in Wyndham Vale, Orbost, Trafalgar, Ouyen, Birchip and Immaculate Heart in Stratford, to come forward with information about allegations of abuse.

The alleged abuse occurred between 1976 to 1996.

In June, the Beaumaris Primary inquiry was announced to establish a public record of victim-survivors of staff at the school in the 1960s and 1970s.

Former Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley discovered through a Freedom of Information claim that almost 400 civil claims in 12 years had been made against the state government for historic child sexual abuse in its schools.

A Department of Education spokesman said: “We encourage anyone who has experienced abuse as a current or former student at a Victorian government school to report it to both the Department of Education and Police – so that perpetrators can be held to account and victims can access the support they need and deserve.”