Former St Paul’s student says after he revealed he had been sexually abused by a paedophile music teacher, Phillip Aspinall ‘attempted to bamboozle and intimidate me into submissive retreat’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Anglican archbishop of Brisbane, Phillip Aspinall, allegedly told a paedophile music tutor’s victim to turn away from his “sinful path” of pursuing legal action against the church.

The royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse continued hearings on Monday into the experiences of former students and staff responses at two prestigious Brisbane schools.

A former student of St Paul’s school told the inquiry he had been abused by convicted pedophile Gregory Robert Knight after starting at the school in 1981. Knight groomed him for abuse, eventually drugging and raping him, he said.

The victim said a maths teacher even taunted him about his relationship with the tutor, calling him Knight’s “doormat” among other homophobic slurs.

He claimed this teacher also made him sit on the classroom doormat and encouraged students to pretend to wipe dog faeces on him.

But when the student subsequently told former school head Gilbert Case about his treatment by Knight, Case allegedly said: “You should never lie like that.”

The man said he then endured a “humiliating” meeting with Aspinall.

“He attempted to bamboozle and intimidate me into submissive retreat,” the man said.

He said the church never denied his allegations and even told him in private they “believed it all”.

“But their public face was one of pure detachment, dismissal and derision,” he said

He said church leaders were preoccupied with self-preservation and power. This was illustrated, he said, in an alleged exchange with Aspinall in which the Anglican leader told him to turn away from a “sinful” path of litigation to the “righteous” one of mediation within the church.

He cited a news report allegedly showing former governor general Peter Hollingworth painting victims as “undesirables” out to blame others for their poor choices.

Hollingworth denies the statement but the victim maintained it was included in a transcript of Australian Story.

“The church has forever lost all right to exist above the law,” he said. “It clearly can never be trusted again.”

Aspinall, Hollingworth, Case and Knight are all expected to give evidence in coming days. Knight denies abusing the man.

The royal commission continues.

• This story was amended on 10 November 2015 to remove an incorrect reference to the “former archbishop” of Brisbane. Phillip Aspinall is the current archbishop.