Sunshine Coast Grammar founder John Burgess in $915k sex abuse claim

A prestigious Queensland school’s founder maintained a facade of respectability for years while hiding a dark history of sexual abuse that is continuing to come to light, writes Mark Furler.

John Burgess in 2002.

The devil is always in the details.

When news first broke of Sunshine Coast Grammar School founder John William Burgess being involved in inappropriate behaviour, the most surprising reaction was the support for him in the school community.

The Sunday Mail’s Sunshine Coast bureau chief Stephen Lamble first published a very guarded and obviously legally restricted account.

Lamble, a great investigative journalist who went on to become the head of the University of the Sunshine Coast’s journalism department, had obtained the original court documents detailing Mr Burgess’ shocking behaviour.

Even without the details, it was a huge scandal on the Sunshine Coast.

The Sunshine Coast Daily published a series of stories which exposes John Burgess’ shocking history, leading him to be declared unfit to be a teacher.

Here was the guy, lauded by many as a great academic and leader, who started one of the region’s most prestigious and expensive colleges in 1997 at Forest Glen near the blue-ribbon Buderim.

What wasn’t revealed, because of legal constraints, was that he had sex with a 13-year-old girl.

She was a student and he was a teacher aged 27 at the time.

The sexual relationship lasted six months.

As a journalist at the Sunshine Coast Daily, I too obtained the court documents detailing the 1979 conviction for carnal knowledge of a minor.

From memory, he was given a fine of about $500 and no conviction was recorded.

Sunshine Coast Grammar School has an exceptional academic reputation, despite the scandal surrounding its founder. Picture: Google Maps

Under the Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986, as our barrister pointed out, we were unable to bring up the details of Mr Burgess’ conviction because so many years had passed.

The law is designed to let people who have done their time get on with their lives and start again.

In this case, Mr Burgess had done no time, with the law allowing him to continue his predatory ways with both students and staff while parents, who were paying huge sums for an education, were left in the dark.

As we continued to investigate Mr Burgess, it was clear whenever he was found out, he would spin the story. He would often say the girl was “almost 16‘’ and that he was just out of teaching college.

Even a police officer that I spoke to, who was a neighbour of Mr Burgess, thought he was a great bloke. Again, he knew the story but only John Burgess’ version of it.

Around 2002, after sustained media pressure, Mr Burgess was deregistered from teaching and stood down after a Queensland Board of Teacher Registration hearing.

At the suggestion of our brilliant barrister Bruce Burke, the Sunshine Coast Daily had applied to be a party to the hearing, arguing it was in the public interest.

Our request was denied but were allowed to be present when the original allegations were read into the record.

John Burgess arrives at a school board hearing in Brisbane in 2002.

For the first time, we were able to reveal that John Burgess didn’t just have sex with a student near his age.

He was a 27-year-old man who had a six month sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

That detail finally undid the lies he had been able to spread.

It was that deceit had even led to parents protesting outside the Sunshine Coast Daily office as we first started reporting on their beloved principal, a day I’ll never forget.

But as it was revealed, Mr Burgess was no one time offender.

He had kissed and touched teachers and pupils for years.

At Sunshine Coast Grammar School, he was accused of having inappropriate closed door meetings with students.

This week, it was revealed a former student alleged he was anally raped twice and forced to perform oral sex at Sunshine Coast Grammar School in 2000.

It is alleged Mr Burgess put his hands down the plaintiff’s pants and forced him to his knees.

The $915,000 claim alleges negligence by the State of Queensland in allowing Mr Burgess to become a teacher in the first place.

In 2003 it was revealed allegations levelled during Mr Burgess’s time at Ormiston College resulted in an $11,000 settlement paid to a female teacher and her transfer from the school.

And students, teachers and parents at the Sunshine Coast Grammar also reported improper and unacceptable behaviour, with some students leaving the school because of it.

In a damning judgement had down in 2003, a Brisbane District Court judge found the Queensland Board of Teacher Registration had acted appropriately when it found Mr

Burgess was unfit to be a teacher.

“His inappropriate treatment of female pupils at Ormiston, in combination with the sexual harassment of two teachers and other inappropriate conduct found by the board, raised serious doubts as to fitness to be a teacher at that time,’’ Judge Manus Boyce said in a written judgement.

“There was continuity in inappropriate behaviour from 1977 up to the hearing before the board.

“There was a similarity in inappropriate behaviour from 1977 to the present in that it all concerned the touching of females — teachers, pupils, and parents...

“In my opinion, the board was justified in regarding all of these matters as showing Mr Burgess to be a person unfit to be a teacher.’’

By then Sunshine Coast Grammar School chairman of directors was very keen to publicly distance Mr Burgess from the elite school, saying he had no operational involvement since November 2002, even though he owned the college at the time.

John William Burgess died in 2006 and despite its scandalous foundation, Sunshine Coast Grammar School has an exceptional record for academic excellence.

Mark Furler is an award-winning journalist and editor who has been based on the Sunshine Coast for almost 40 years.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast Grammar founder John Burgess in $915k sex abuse claim