Scathing inquiry finds Dilworth hid sex abuse claims, silenced survivors

For years, Dilworth School’s been accused of having covered up historical sexual abuse by its staff. Today, it has finally had its sins laid bare.

An independent inquiry has found the prestigious Auckland school suppressed offending and hid the reality of teachers’ actions.

Survivors were silenced and the school’s actions not only protected sex criminals, but enabled them.

The report describes a kind of sex ring, where offenders at the boarding school for under-privileged boys knew of each other’s sexual interest in students and assisted one another in creating opportunities for abuse.

While recent court proceedings have led to convictions for crimes relating to 45 students, the inquiry has identified 175 victims of sexual abuse and it believed the true number is higher again.

The report acknowledged the police estimate that there are 233 victims.

Abuse allegations had been made recently as 2018.

The inquirers, Dame Silvia Cartwright and Frances Joychild, state there is sustained and verified history of the school often holding police at bay when staff sexual offending was at issue.

"In some cases, it offered not to report [to police] as part of a negotiation to secure a quick resignation."

The report said that was "in stark contrast to the prompt police referrals made of students, and the difference in approach is difficult to reconcile".

The independent inquiry launched in July last year and looked at claims from as early as 1950. It found offending, by both staff and students, was consistent at Dilworth from then until 2005.

The report said complaints were made in every previous era of school leadership, but that most were dismissed without investigation or ignored.

Students were often called “liars” and accused of ruining teachers’ reputations when they raised allegations. Often, they were also severely punished.

One survivor told the inquiry that John Conolly, headmaster from 1951 to 1966, threatened to cane him to within an inch of his life after raising a complaint.

Under Murray Wilton, headmaster between 1979 and 1997, four staff were allowed to resign following complaints of sexual abuse and were given "effusive references" to teach elsewhere.

The report said this "emboldened" the sex criminals. It sent a plain message to other offending staff that there would be no repercussions for their actions, apart from potentially leaving the school.

"The clear message was that they need not be concerned about restrictions on any of their teaching careers after Dilworth."

One man serving prison time for his abuse, Ian Wilson, told the inquiry that’s how he felt.

In total, 416 interviews and 265 written statements contributed to the report’s findings.

On top of 175 former students, Cartwright and Joychild engaged with 30 family members, some representing deceased students.

The inquiry also received information from more than 100 people who were employed by Dilworth or closely associated with the school, including all living headmasters and 10 of the 13 living trustees.

It interviewed two men who are in prison for their abuse at the school, and received information from three others who’ve been convicted.

A group of more than 150 survivors, taking legal action against school, believed their class action is what forced the inquiry.

Neil Harding, a survivor who attended the school from 1977-1978, has been the face of their case.

Today he feels a burden has been lifted.

He told 1News: "It seems the school it was hijacked decades ago and a succession of people have continued to carry the baton to hide the truth, to protect the reputation of the institution and not the boys that have been harmed."

"There should be criminal liability for those people in charge."

In his view, the actions of leaders are worse than the acts of abuse themselves.

Alongside the inquiry, the school is also carrying out a redress programme which will come in the form of personal apologies and financial compensation.

Dilworth is the wealthiest school in the country, with assets totalling almost $1 billion.

Its trust board is currently using some that to build two nine storey apartment buildings in Auckland's Epsom. There will be 190 residential rentals on the 4000 square metre site.

But despite its riches, the school has put a cap on how much money’s being made available to abuse victims.

That’s been repeatedly criticised by survivors and now the inquiry recommended the school reassess it’s approach.

It has been told to work with former students "to identify what steps are needed to supplement the current redress programme".

The inquiry found the school "will continue to be blighted by the scandal that has engulfed it unless and until it works collaboratively with those abused".

The class action group said this requires the Dilworth Trust Board to do more than pay lip service to the survivors.

Harding, who has been vocal on the matter, has previously said “don't put a cap on our lives”.

Today he said "what we're seeing is school that had assets, has been functioning as a property investment now development company, fronting as a school".

He also called for the current trust chair Aaron Snodgrass to resign and said they can't work collaboratively until he does.

The inquiry has made 19 recommendations. Key among them is to reform the trust board.

Inquirers say, to this day, the board model in place is inadequate for proper governance of a school.

It has been found that successive boards failed in their response to physical and sexual abuse.

“It failed to investigate complaints properly or at all, failed to support students reporting abuse or investigate for further students impacted, failed to report abusing teachers to the police and the Department of Education.”

The report found it also failed to vet staff and to guide and oversee the school’s leadership.

“When this history first came to the board’s notice decades ago, a radical culture change was required but not undertaken because the board members lacked the necessary knowledge and expertise.”

Over the years, trustees have been largely focused on the school’s commercial interests.

The report also pointed out that the board’s been made up of 50% old boys, and that for many decades, the chairman has been a former student.

It found, with that, has come a sense of loyalty and a desire to protect Dilworth’s reputation.

In turn, the inquirers found: “We conclude there was evidence of an intention to prioritise reputational damage control over the wellbeing of past and present students.”

No parent has ever been on the board and that it has only had two women representatives in its history, one of whom was Isabella Dilworth, the widow of the school’s founder.

The report writers were “struck by the mistrust in the school leadership and board, expressed by many former students”.

They said the board needs skills and resources to manage a school, and it needs to reflect its diverse community and move away from being dominated by largely pākehā men with business backgrounds.

The school has also been told it needs to heal rifts within its old boy community and continue to improve relationships with parents, who were often shut out during decades of staff abuse.

Other recommendations include for Dilworth to develop a central registry for policy documents and to maintain both student and teacher records indefinitely.

Internal investigations were completed because of allegations against five teachers, but those carrying out the inquiry said the findings are among many crucial documents missing from the school’s files.

The inquiry was able to locate the paperwork from just one investigation, due to a former staff member retaining a copy.

The abuse at Dilworth, while historical, has only come to light in recent years.

Police began looking into allegations made by former students in 2019, launching an investigation dubbed Operation Beverly. A total of 12 men went on to face charges from that.

Seven of those men have been convicted: Ian Wilson, Ross Browne, Robert Howard Wynyard, Leonard Cave, Johnathan Stephens, Alister Harlow and Graeme Lindsay.

Three men died before their court proceedings could progress: Keith Dixon, Rex McIntosh and Richard Galloway.

One defendant, the youngest charged in connection to the school, still awaits his trial. Another man has never appeared.

There were several other prosecutions in the years before Operation Beverly began.

The first man to be sentenced was chaplain Reverend Peter Taylor in 1994, he was also convicted in 2000.

Harlow, Wilson, Dixon and two other unnamed staff were also convicted earlier.

But there are many allegations that haven’t been tested in court.

The inquiry said that Taylor was convicted of offending in respect of two former students, but the inquiry’s aware of 35 students who were abused by him.

This was not helped by the fact that documents related to the chaplain were destroyed in an apparent cleanout in the early 1990s.

The report said it “prevented police from accessing a valuable source of information to assist in their prosecution of him in 1994 and 2000”.

The school provided limited assistance to police at that time, not making staff available for interviews and not revealing there was relevant information on student medical records.

“The only focus for the board was to ensure it obtained name suppression of the staff member and school”, the report said.

It said the school made “routine applications” for its name to be protected.

Developing a more cooperative relationship with law enforcement is another recommendation that’s been made by inquirers.

For survivors, the journey towards justice has been a long one.

Many of those who were targeted by Dilworth’s abusers have sat through what’s felt like an endless number of court hearings, on top of giving evidence before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, and engaging with the independent inquiry.

Statements from some survivors have been heard in court over the past few years, with depression a common theme.

"To this day it still causes me deep anxiety,” one said.

Others described living with a “sense of shame”.

One man who was abused by former music teacher Cave explained how the abuse he suffered "ground down [his] self confidence" and he "lost the ability to work for a number of years".

A whole section of the inquiry report is focused on the damage that’s been done to former students.

“Almost all suffer or have suffered from anxiety and/or depression,” it read.

Men shared the toll it had taken on relationships, leading to failed marriages, an inability to trust, and emotional disconnection from their own children.

There are former students who’ve struggled financially and some who have lived on the streets.

"Some students ended up homeless as a direct result of the abuse suffered," the report said.

Others had gone on to become criminals, join gangs and suffer from significant addiction issues.

"Many spent their 20s and 30s battling addictions. Some still battle them."

The inquiry also found over 40 former students attempted suicide.

The Class Action Group also believed over 20 men committed suicide after being abused as schoolboys.

“We heard of several students who died by suicide within a year or so of leaving Dilworth,” the report said.

Of 22 mothers who spoke to the inquirers, several spoke of the pain of losing their sons.

Browne was one of the most prolific sex offenders at Dilworth, his offending spanning more than 15 years.

When he was sentenced for 16 crimes in December 2021, one survivor told him: “Must be feeling lucky there’re so few charges, got away with a lot didn’t you."

The chaplain featured in a TVNZ story in 1993.

“Dilworth is a place, where, if you need it you can get a hug or something, a place which is that comfortable," he said in it.

The inquiry found no other staff member had as many complaints and concerns raised about their conduct.

The 75 year-old’s got another set of charges that are still being dealt with in court.

Wilson, former Dilworth housemaster and scouting volunteer, is also considered one of the school’s worst offenders.

Harding, who was one of the first survivors to have his automatic name suppression lifted, looked his abuser straight in the eye when he was sentenced in March 2021.

“Did you not consider that I would grow up and remember your actions? Do you remember, or was I just one of many?"

Wilson was convicted for abusing five boys that day.

Just last month, the 71-year-old was handed an additional prison sentence after belatedly admitting to having abused five other students.

That is on top of his conviction in the '90s, for sexually assaulting another boy.

Harding has maintained all along that his experience at Dilworth was “just the tip of the iceberg”.

Former music teacher Cave, whose offending stretched four decades, is the only man to have gone to trial for his actions.

A jury heard a week of evidence and spent just one day deliberating before returning guilty verdicts on all but one of the now 76-year-old's charges.

Cave was among the men who benefited from a positive referral letter on his clouded departure from Dilworth.

Wilton wrote “he will be sorely missed at this school”, and he “commend[s] him enthusiastically to prospective employers".

Cave went on to abuse a student at another school.

In October last year, two of the men responsible for the school during decades of staff sex crimes were questioned at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Headmaster Wilton (1979-1997), and Derek Firth, a trustee of 40 years, were both grilled over alleged actions to cover up abuse.

Wilton "categorically" denied any moves to conceal wrong doing by "a relatively small group of very rotten apples".

"At no point did I, nor the trustees, nor any Dilworth staff member attempt to cover up reports of abuse or turn a blind eye to it,” he told the commissioners.

Firth criticised the school for not shutting down allegations of a cover up. He said through allowing victims to “fester” and not correcting them, the current trust has caused further harm.

He was chairman for a decade of his time on the trust and said he only knew of five abuse cases during his tenure. He claimed 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."

Now survivors say the record’s been set straight.

The Class Action Group said the report thoroughly and honestly described how the Dilworth Trust Board knew that boys in its care were being sexually abused and instead of stopping it from happening, took steps to cover it up.

The inquiry report said the school had “ample material” to understand what it should have done and failed to act.

The "active suppression of complaints" and punishment of boys who spoke out by Headmaster Peter Parr (1967-1979), is described as "difficult to explain".

Cartwright and Joychild shut down the idea that concerns students may have made up allegations was a motivation for rejecting complaints. They found leaders knew the complaints they received were more than just rumours.

Even after Taylor was first convicted in 1994, the board did not act on advice from its lawyer to adopt appropriate procedures.

Inquirers are clear in their finding that the school knew it was not dealing with “one or two ‘bad apples’”, as Wilton referenced.

While Wilton denied or could not recall receiving many complaints, the inquiry does not accept that.

"We are sustained in this conclusion by Dr Wilton’s extraordinary and repeated actions in providing glowing and lengthy testimonial for staff who to his knowledge had admitted abuse or were being investigated for it."

"These are indicative of both a desire to hide or be rid of the problem as soon as possible."

The school’s been criticised in the report for "repeatedly engaged in misleading communication… about the reasons for teacher departure following misconduct".

Offending that happened under the watch of each headmaster has been dissected in today’s report.

Under the leadership of John Conolly (1951-1966) the inquiry was told of four instances of sexual abuse and nine serious physical abuse allegations.

It said while these numbers are on the lower end, it’s not believed to be indicative of less physical or sexual abuse. The reports points out most former students from this era are now in their late 70s or 80s. Some may be too elderly to have engaged with the inquiry and others may have died.

In the Parr era (1967-1979) it’s understood 69 students were sexually abused. The report said at any one time there were between two and six abusers working at Dilworth, in many years there were four or five. At least 53 boys were physically abused in this period of time.

There were more complaints of sexual abuse in Wilton’s time as headmaster than in any other era of the school. The inquiry identified 89 sexual abuse victims and 75 physical abuse victims.

The report said “it is clear several of the staff in the Parr era and into the Wilton era knew other staff were abusing students as well".

As one example of collusion it said, "We were told of situations where staff who were abusing boys, facilitated access to a boy for another staff member".

When Donald MacLean (1997-2018) was head of the school, 31 boys were sexually abused and 22 were physically abused.

Former tutor Keith Dixon was prosecuted during MacLean’s tenure as Dilworth’s headmaster, and he wrote an affidavit applying for the school’s name to be suppressed in court.

He wrote: "There may be unwarranted speculation that the offending covered a wider period than is the case or that more pupils were involved". The inquiry was scathing of this, stating "the school knew it was not dealing with an isolated and historic issue as the affidavit implies".

The inquiry found there were a total 134 survivors of physical abuse at the school, with much linked to excessive use of the cane.

The report said students in boarding houses were caned for trivial matters, like leaving toothpaste on a toothbrush.

One boy recalled being struck across the face for having dirty fingernails.

In some cases, victims were left with split skin, head injuries, and psychological damage.

The inquirers referenced reports that some staff took “unhealthy delight” in caning boys.

The report said students and families at the school now have expressed a strong belief they’re "well protected" and that there’s "zero tolerance for any form of abuse".

The inquiry report said the school’s current headmaster, Dan Reddiex, and two other staffers have been crucial in Dilworth’s transformation.

It said fundamental culture change appears to be underway but more work needs to be done.

It suggests a leadership succession plan is put in place, to ensure the momentum for improvement doesn’t slow or cease.

The school, which saw a draft report earlier this year, said it would examine the inquiry's report "with the utmost care and consideration".

Snodgrass said the impact of the abuse on survivors was "heartbreaking", and vowed it would learn from past mistakes.

"The Board apologises to all those who suffered abuse while students at our school. We also apologise to their families and whānau. The report makes abundantly clear that it was not their fault – it was their school that failed to protect them and for that we are truly sorry."

The panel looking at redress for survivors has previously indicated it would not make determinations on applications until after the report had been released. It was likely to start early next year.

"I remain mindful that the Redress Programme Panel operates and acts independently of Dilworth in its decisions and the redress determinations it will make," Snodgrass said.

"The Panellists are highly experienced people who are working diligently to ensure offers of redress are fair and that applicants are supported in the process."

The former president of the Old Boys Association Steve Brown, who was removed from his role for supporting survivors and who sat through almost every court hearing linked to abuse at the school said: "This report shows us the truth about the dangers of Dilworth Old Boys running Dilworth."

He feels today was "judgement day" for the school, where he was a student and then a teacher for a total of almost 18 years.

He says the report confirms the cover up survivors alleged.

"For years, these boys and their families have been almost invisible to the Dilworth community," he said.