The Royal Commission has heard the horrifying account of how middle school chaplain attempted to hypnotise students before sexually assaulting them.
The chaplain in question, Reverend John Davison, who later went on to become a Church vicar, allegedly molested and assaulted several boys around 1971 at the prestigious Geelong Grammar School in Victoria.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has heard the testaments of two former Geelong students who claim they were assaulted by Reverend Davison.
The Commission has also heard that it was not only Reverend Davison, but an estimated six employees who abused children from the late 1950s up to around 2007.
The two week trial will see 23 witnesses, including six former students, three former principals and the school’s current principal, come forward to testify about Geelong Grammar’s history of sexual abuse against children and its “deep code of silence”.
Dr Robert Llewellyn-Jones, a former Geelong student who was 15 at the time of the assaults, has alleged that the former school chaplain and now deceased, Reverend Davison ‘counselled him’ when he was being bullied and attempted to sexually abuse him at that time.
Dr Llewellyn-Jones testified that Rev Davison attempted to assault him after a series of ‘counselling sessions’ and tried to hypnotise him with a pocket watch in his locked office.
“He spoke to me about feeling heavier and heavier, and told me I felt warm, relaxed and safe and comfortable with him,” the commission heard.
“He told me that sex was natural, that it was good for me,” the now 59-year-old said.
“He told me he could teach me about sex and that I could do it with him so that I would get very good at it.”
Dr Llewellyn-Jones commented that, at that point, the Reverend put his hand on his upper thigh, but he yelled for him to stop.
“He told me that it was not going to go down well with Mr Hayward, the deputy headmaster, that I had propositioned the school chaplain,” said Dr Llewellyn-Jones.
“The power and prestige of the school served to discourage victims from breaking their silence about the abuse that they experienced,” he said.
But the Llewellyn-Jones wasn’t the only boy to come forth about the Reverend’s abuse. The psychiatrist told the commission that a friend of his had confided in him that the Reverend had attempted to hypnotise an entire group of students.
“I was also told that the reverend had left GGS under a cloud because it had gone too far with a younger boy,” said Llewellyn-Jones.
“Another GGS friend told me that when some of the senior students became aware that he had sexually abused students, they were told by a senior staff member not to disclose this matter to anyone,” he commented.
According to the commission, Davison left Geelong Grammar sometime after his assault and went onto become the vicar at St Augustine’s Church in Mont Albert.
Dr Llewellyn-Jones also alleged that, as far as he knew, Reverend Davison was never penalised for his actions, nor did the school attempt to prevent the attacks or protect the students in any way.
Geelong Grammar has an extensive history of sexual abuse of children extending for almost 60 years, with more than six employees having been formally charged and sentenced with sexual abuse of children.
A former tutor John Buckley recently admitted to abusing six boys at the school, including ‘stroking the victim’s genitals’ after helping him ‘remove body paint’.
Another student has come forth to allege that the now deceased Reverend Norman Smith sexually abused him in 1967.
A former employee of the school, Graham Dennis, was charged with gross indecency and indecent assault in 2008 for an assault on a male student in the 1950s.
A former teacher, Jonathan Harvey, pleaded guilty in 2007 to 10 counts of sexual abuse and gross indecency on a male student.
In 2005, former tutor Phillipe Vincent Trutmann was sentenced to six-and-a-half-years after being charged for sexually abusing 40 male students between 1985 and 1995.
He was also charged with possessing 485 images and 159 videos of child pornography.
Another employee, Stefan van Vuuren, will be trialled for taking photos up the skirts of female students whilst on excursion.
The Royal Commission’s hearing is currently ongoing.
