Ex-dilworth student felt ‘powerless’ to speak out against alleged abuse

Former students at Auckland’s Dilworth School have reported allegations of sexual abuse dating as far back as the 1950s.

Seven men with links to the Anglican boys’ boarding school in Epsom have been arrested for alleged historical offending that involved sexual violation, indecent assault and supplying drugs. All the charged men are aged between 60 and 78.

Quin Burnside, who attended the school in the 1990s, said he witnessed and was told of sexual abuse happening to his classmates on several occasions.

‘‘By the time I was in year 10 I was aware of six people, staff and students included, who were removed from the school quietly for sexual offences.

‘‘The school simply swept it all under the rug.’’

Sexual offending by staff against students was ‘‘widely known’’, Burnside said.

He witnessed several incidents where a boy tried to tell a staff member what had happened to them but was brushed off.

One incident Burnside said he was unable to forget occurred during a school retreat he attended with around 15 other boys and three or four members of staff. ‘‘The retreat was treated like a big counselling session, and we were encouraged to share our inner secrets and life stories with everyone.

‘‘One of the older boys broke down during the session and said he had been having a sexual relationship with one of our teachers.’’

Burnside said staff at the retreat warned the boys to never mention the sexual offending again, or they would be expelled, but Burnside didn’t listen.

‘‘I ignored the threats and told a bunch of other students about what happened and shortly after I was expelled for seemingly unrelated reasons, but I always knew it was because I broke the secrecy.’’

Awareness that sexual offending was happening regularly was widespread, Burnside said. Once during a sexual education class, Burnside said a classmate spoke

up to the priest and said one member of staff would give him massages.

‘‘The priest fobbed him off and said the member of staff was just friendly,’’ Burnside said.

The charges the seven men face span a number of decades, dating back to the 1970s.

However one former student said he suffered abuse at the school back in the 1950s.

Charles Reynolds said he was bullied and sexually abused from 1952 until 1958 and it affected his psyche throughout his life.

Most of the abuse Reynolds alleges was carried out by older students. ‘‘When I started at Dilworth I was a small, shy eightyear-old so life was extremely difficult for me there.’’ Reynolds claimed he was sexually assaulted by a prefect in an outbuilding that was used as a private study.

There had also been a staff member at the school, Reynolds said, who would take boys out on the weekends for a ride in his car.

He would put his hands all over the boys as they travelled, Reynolds said.

‘‘I don’t know whether he ever took it further with anyone, but I was terrified of him.’’

Burnside said he also saw incidents where older students sexually abused and terrorised younger boys, some only nine years old.

When Burnside was aged 14, he said two of his closest friends were cornered by a senior student behind the school stage.

‘‘They were forced to masturbate in front of this boy at knifepoint,’’ Burnside said.

After the attack, Burnside accompanied his friends to the headmaster’s office to tell him what had happened but his friends were accused of lying.

Reynolds said during his time at the school, nobody dared tell the headmaster about the abuse that was happening for fear of being caned.

‘‘I was caned on multiple occasions, it was pretty brutal.

‘‘It was always aimed at the bare skin on your bottom.’’

After leaving Dilworth, Reynolds said he turned to selfdestructive behaviour and drugs to cope, and he tried to take his life several times.

‘‘The school simply swept it all under the rug.’’

Quin Burnside Former Dilworth School student