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| Geelong Grammar 'more worried about scandal than abuse in hypnosis' | Geelong Grammar 'more worried about scandal than abuse in hypnosis' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Geelong Grammar school was concerned only about avoiding a scandal when a student reported a chaplain had abused him during a hypnosis session, an inquiry has heard. | Geelong Grammar school was concerned only about avoiding a scandal when a student reported a chaplain had abused him during a hypnosis session, an inquiry has heard. |
| The boys pretended to be hypnotised because they were scared during the “stupid” hypnosis sessions with the Rev John Davison, a former student, BKO, told the child abuse royal commission on Wednesday. | The boys pretended to be hypnotised because they were scared during the “stupid” hypnosis sessions with the Rev John Davison, a former student, BKO, told the child abuse royal commission on Wednesday. |
| Related: Senior Geelong Grammar staff knew of sexual abuse, royal commission hears | Related: Senior Geelong Grammar staff knew of sexual abuse, royal commission hears |
| BKO told his maths teacher, Jonathan Harvey – who was later convicted for abusing a student – and found the process very threatening, including being told he might be expelled. | BKO told his maths teacher, Jonathan Harvey – who was later convicted for abusing a student – and found the process very threatening, including being told he might be expelled. |
| BKO said the inquiry felt like a trial between himself and the perpetrator. | BKO said the inquiry felt like a trial between himself and the perpetrator. |
| “I know the school was only concerned about avoiding a scandal,” he said. | “I know the school was only concerned about avoiding a scandal,” he said. |
| When he returned to school in 1972 after summer holidays he was told by a staff member: “We were going to expel you because we didn’t believe you, but he confessed.” | When he returned to school in 1972 after summer holidays he was told by a staff member: “We were going to expel you because we didn’t believe you, but he confessed.” |
| BKO was upset with the way the school handled the incident. No one had acknowledged that what Davison did was wrong or that they were sorry, he said. | BKO was upset with the way the school handled the incident. No one had acknowledged that what Davison did was wrong or that they were sorry, he said. |
| “I was made to feel that I was wrong. It was very clinical, it was very cold, and even though he went and I stayed, I always had a bit of a sense that it was partly my fault. | “I was made to feel that I was wrong. It was very clinical, it was very cold, and even though he went and I stayed, I always had a bit of a sense that it was partly my fault. |
| “I got the impression that the school simply wanted the issue to vanish. They were not comfortable dealing with it at all.” | “I got the impression that the school simply wanted the issue to vanish. They were not comfortable dealing with it at all.” |
| BKO described the school’s rural campus, Timbertop, as a quite brutal environment. | BKO described the school’s rural campus, Timbertop, as a quite brutal environment. |
| “It’s a Lord of the Flies type situation at times,” he said. | “It’s a Lord of the Flies type situation at times,” he said. |
| He finished his statement with a message for abusers. | He finished his statement with a message for abusers. |
| “You may think that they’re powerless little boys who won’t be believed but we grow up, we become men and we remember.” | “You may think that they’re powerless little boys who won’t be believed but we grow up, we become men and we remember.” |
| Another former student, BIZ, said he awoke to find live-in boarding house assistant Philippe Trutmann - dubbed “filthy Phil” by some students - fondling him and pretended to be asleep as he was scared. | |
| BIZ said he reported the 1985 or 1986 abuse to the matron, Jenny Davis, but she dismissed it. | |
| “I said: ‘Mr Trutmann has been coming into my room and playing with me in my bed’,” BIZ said in a statement read out by counsel assisting the commission, David Lloyd. | |
| “She said: ‘He must have been looking for the cat.’ | |
| “I am sure it was pretty clear to her what I meant when I said ‘playing with me in my bed’.” | |
| BIZ said the abuse continued and he rigged up a warning system by tying knitting wool around his door handle, a towel rail on the wardrobe, a chair and to his toe, so he would wake up if his bedroom door opened. | |
| “The system worked just as I hoped it would and it woke me up,” he said. | |
| Trutmann was later jailed for six and a half years for abusing 40 boys at Geelong Grammar between 1985 and 1995. |