Former Cromer students name suspect teachers
Former students of a Sydney high school write down names of teachers involved in alleged relationships with pupils.
Former students of Sydney’s Cromer high school stepped forward in unison at a meeting on the northern beaches yesterday and wrote down names of teachers involved in alleged sex assaults or relationships with pupils.
About 35 former students met at the Collaroy Surf Club, where they were given contact details for lawyers and a police taskforce that has been set up to investigate the historical allegations.
As the private two-hour meeting ended, men and women used two red notebooks to write down names of teachers alongside their own contact details or made notes anonymously for further investigation.
“They have named over and again the same teachers,” former Cromer vice-captain Robyn Wheeler said.
It comes after allegations surfaced in The Australian’s investigative podcast series The Teacher’s Pet that a “pack” of teachers pursued students for sex at the school in the 1970s and 80s.
Detectives from the NSW sex crimes squad and the northern beaches police area command have set up Strike Force Southwood to investigate, with allegations extending to teachers from nearby schools.
The podcast series is investigating the unsolved disappearance of Sydney mother Lyn Dawson, who is suspected to have been murdered by her husband, Chris, a former star footballer and Cromer high school teacher. He denies killing his wife.
When Lyn went missing, Mr Dawson was having an affair with teenager Joanne Curtis that started when she was 16 and a Year 11 student at Cromer.
One of the main questions from those who attended yesterday’s meeting was why Mr Dawson was not charged over the affair.
It was an offence for teachers to have sex with female pupils under the age of 17, punishable with up to 14 years’ jail.
Police have in the past focused on Lyn’s suspected murder and not associated offences that may have been committed involving schoolgirls.
Maurice Blackburn lawyers have advised Cromer students that any civil action against the NSW Department of Education be run as individual cases.
There was no media allowed at the meeting and guests were admitted only with tickets and photo identification.
“The general mood at first was quite apprehensive, but we were very upfront and direct,” Ms Wheeler said. “There were no tears. We just said thanks for coming, this is what we don’t want to do today, this is what we want to achieve, and here are all the contacts and documents.”
The Cromer alumni were encouraged to photograph and share information sheets through their networks of friends.
“We did tell people if they had just a little piece of information, or something they’d seen, to call the sex crimes unit because those guys are going to piece it all together,’’ Ms Wheeler said.
“So don’t think that what you know is insignificant. Everything is significant and we need the full picture to emerge.
“There were a number of people who said they would be contacting police or the lawyers pretty much straight away.”
Do you know more about this story? Contact thomash@theaustralian.com.au.