The Teacher’s Pet: deputy head says he wanted hard evidence of teacher-pupil sex

The former deputy head of Cromer High says he was never given proof teachers were having sex with students.

Hylton Mace, former deputy head of Cromer High

The former deputy head of Cromer High says he was never given proof teachers were having sex with students, as past pupils say the school’s culture allowed the relationships to flourish.

Hylton Mace said it was ­“deplorable if it was true” that teachers had sex with students when he was the school’s deputy head in the 1970s and 80s but ­denied it was ignored at the time.

“Anyone that mentioned anyone involved in relationships with students, I would say to them ‘Have you got any definite evidence?’ ” he said yesterday. “No one ever came forward with anything definite. You’d get a reply ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’, but no one gave me any hard evidence of what was going on.”

Former Cromer High vice-captain Robyn Wheeler, former school captain Jane Linwood and former students Michelle Walsh and Phil Webster all said the ­behaviour of teachers was well understood at the time and effectively condoned through a conspiracy of silence.

Mr Webster said teachers told him they could not be held criminally responsible ­because they were monitoring girls’ birthdays and knew when they turned 16, the age of consent.

The Australian’s podcast The Teacher’s Pet has uncovered allegations that a “pack” of male teachers was having sex with teenage girls from the school in the early 80s.

Mr Mace said students may have known more than him, but “sometimes students’ information isn’t always accurate … To say the school had a culture of condoning this … is ­totally a misrepresentation of the school. I have never been to a school that had a better ethic of support and honourable teachers doing the second mile to help the kids in every area. I find it terribly disappointing other ­people didn’t see it that way.”

The podcast is investigating the 1982 disappearance of Lyn Dawson. Her husband and suspected killer, Chris Dawson, was a Cromer High sports teacher who was involved in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student, Joanne Curtis.

Mr Dawson strenuously denies killing his wife.

The Australian has been receiving information about similar sexual misconduct in other northern beaches schools, including at Forest High and Beacon Hill High.

Mr Dawson went to Beacon Hill High in early 1982, soon after the disappearance of his wife.

His twin brother, Paul, was a senior teacher at Forest High in the early 1980s.

Mr Mace, who is now in his 90s, has two sons who became teachers including one who works at Cromer High.

“They tell me what went on in those days in the 80s can’t be repeated now. There are guidelines put down by the Department of Education that are quite firm.

“There was never a guideline that was put down for a guidance in this sort of thing, only what you thought was right or wrong ­yourself.”

Mr Mace revealed on the podcast that he twice reprimanded Chris Dawson for being in an ­office with Joanne, and later ­refused to give him a reference.

“This pursuit of inappropriate behaviour outside the pursuit of getting Chris Dawson charged, I think that is … pointless,” he said yesterday.