A former leader from Auckland’s Dilworth, fronting up about the sex abuse that occurred on his watch, has criticised the school for not shutting down allegations of a cover up.
Appearing at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, trustee of 40 years, Derek Firth, was grilled on what more he could have done to protect students.
He was singing the same tune as former Headmaster Murray Wilton who spoke on Wednesday, both claiming there was never a blind eye turned.
Firth said if he and Wilton were given the opportunity, their evidence could have allowed Dilworth to rebut the claims they’d concealed staff wrong-doing.
Instead, he said, “Victims were allowed to fester, like an unlanced boil, over these things that were not correct and they were not being corrected so they just got greater entrenched in their minds.”
He believes through that, the current trust has caused victims further harm.
Firth left the board in 2015, after 40 years of involvement.
Murray Wilton apologised for those who suffered abuse at Dilworth but victims feel he turned a blind eye. (Source: 1News)
For more than a decade of that time, he was in the role of chairman.
He said he only knew of five cases during his tenure and that for the time, the actions taken were “appropriate”.
“Where a complainant was not believed, even if wrongly not believed, that's not correct to call that a cover up.
“I think it could only be rightly called a cover up if it was known and accepted as abuse and concealed.”
Inquiry counsel Katherine Anderson said, “That would require an investigation into the allegation wouldn’t it?”
Abuse survivor Greg Evans told 1News, “If you don't do an investigation on something, then that's cover up.”
Victims believe institutions like Dilworth should be required to report child abuse to police.
One hundred and seventy survivors have signed a petition calling for that, calling it the Dilworth law.
Evan and another survivor, Neil Harding presented it to commissioners today.
In his speech, Harding said, “We were astounded to learn that in New Zealand there is currently no such law.
“If the law had existed when we were at Dilworth, most of us would never have been sexually abused.”
Evans said, “What's happened in the past is you've really relied on morals.”
Current chairman of the school trust, Aaron Snodgrass is supportive of the idea.
He was also questioned at the inquiry today.
“I think it is essential people are not given the opportunity to make judgement calls, necessity that there is a codified and legal responsibility to report abuse,” he said.
Alleged lies
1News spoke to another survivor who was abused in the 90’s, during both Firth and Wilton’s tenures.
He said, “To be honest, I hold them more responsible than I do my abuser.”
The teacher who molested him, Alister Harlow, was sentenced earlier this year to more than three years in prison.
READ MORE: Ex-Dilworth student tells abuser he's 'being held accountable'
The victim’s school file contains notes and memos written by Firth and Wilton, referring to the abuse he’d reported.
They noted some “moral obligation” to help the boy, who’d already left the school.
“But that support, as you saw from my school file never really turned up,” he said.
“They ended up giving me a check for $1000 to go towards my tech fees and tools… basically nothing.”
The notes also reference Harlow being “dealt with”.
But yesterday in Wilton's evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry, he said, “Alister Harlow was accused of an abuse offence after I had retired.”
The former student believes, “That's a big fat whopping lie… Murray Wilton was still headmaster.”
The victim's file also contains another comment from Firth about other instances involving, “various, previous staff members”.
He went on to write, "we must assume as a statistical probability it will happen again - and again”.
The former student said, “that was the bit that made me realise that by the time it had come to me, that it was all old hat, that they'd had their plays books sorted.”
Anderson asked Firth what went wrong at the school, he said he was reluctant to call it a systems failure.
Evans, supported by other victims claims, “the knowledge that Dilworth had is a lot more than they've let known”.
He’s confident the independent inquiry being led by Dame Silvia Cartwright will reveal all.
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