Daphnis and the vanishing foundation stone … De-naming … “Churchie” school teachers on molestation spree … Old guard led by Lord Eldon in revolt … Serious fraud complaint to Charities Commission … Sir Terence O’Rort reports 

The de-naming crisis at the grammar school has seen a furious outpouring against the city’s Anglican hierarchy. 

One of the school’s proud products, Lord Eldon (aka Tony Morris QC), has lodged a complaint with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission alleging that fraud has been committed. 

He says donations were solicited for a new school building, specifically to be named after a former long-serving headmaster, Dr Harry Roberts – “The Roberts Centre for Innovation and Learning”. Roberts was headmaster between 1947 and 1969. 

Subsequently, the council of the Anglican Church Grammar School decided, in view of allegations of sexual molestation of students under Roberts’ watch, it would be better to scrub his name from the foundation stone. 

The new name for the building is “The Anglican Church Grammar School Centenary Library”. 

However the structure is badged, staff and students simply refer to it as “the library”. It was hardly feasible for teachers to say, “Boys caught playing pocket billiards in scripture will spend their lunchtime in The Roberts Centre for Innovation and Learning”. Hell no. 

The “foundation stone” that Daphnis originally laid in November 2015 bearing Robert’s name has vanished. 

Lord Eldon has told the Charities Commission that “Old Boys, most in their twilight years contributed in the belief that they were continuing to perpetuate the memory of Dr and Mrs Roberts”. 

Instead, “they have, quite simply, been cheated out of their money” and there has been a breach of the “fraud” provisions of the Criminal Code (Q) s.408C.  

Eldon says that the de-naming of the building “is not based on any verified misbehaviour or wrongdoing on the part of Dr Roberts”. 

In relation to the sexual abuse of boys, “he acted with complete propriety, according to the prevailing standards and requirements, in dealing with incidents of alleged sexual abuse by other members of the school’s staff”. 

Eldon wants the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane to de-de-name the building so it reverts to “The Roberts Centre for Learning and Innovation”. 

Chairman of the school board Dan O’Connor explained the decision of the council in a letter to the “Churchie community” last year: 

“The material recently made available to the school council by the diocese suggests that [Roberts’] method of dealing with allegations of abuse in the 1960s does not match current standards.” 

He simply removed paedophiles who were running fast and loose at the school, but took no further action. 

Importantly, O’Connor added, the council’s decision to remove Roberts’ name “acknowledges the hurt that some of our students experienced under his headmastership”. 

Harry John Wippell, a boarding housemaster during Roberts’ reign was facing nine charges, including five of indecent dealing with a boy under 14, when he died. 

Frederick Whitehouse was the school rowing coach in Roberts’ time and was convicted of gross indecency with a young man. Frederick Roy Hoskins was the prep school boarding master and he too sexually assaulted boys between 1947 and 1955. He was jailed for 16 months in 2004. 

The Courier-Mail reported that the school had confirmed that Roberts asked Wippell to move out of the boarding house but permitted him to continue to have contact with the school. His offences were not reported to the police. 

A boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by the boarding housemaster was also caned by Roberts and Wippell. 

There newspaper claimed there was “at least one paedophile on the staff of Churchie at any given time for more than six decades”.  

Eldon reacted fiercely to the de-naming crisis firing off incendiary letters to Archbishop Phillip Aspinall and to Con Castrisos, the president of the old boys’ club. 

He also provided a dissertation of the requirements of “due process” starting with the principle of “audi alteram partem“. Castrisos is an experienced solicitor and would not be unfamiliar with “due process”.  

Lord Eldon was championing the cause of Peter Roberts, son of the departed headmaster, who had written to Aspinall, pleading the case for the naming of the building in honour of his father. 

Eldon found the reply from his Grace unsatisfactory, in no uncertain terms. In his letter to Aspinall he said:

“Reading your correspondence with Mr Peter Roberts, I confess that I cannot conceive of any of Christ’s Apostles – with the exception, possibly, of Judas Iscariot – addressing a faithful member of the Church community, and the loving son of a long-dead and greatly revered father, in terms of such stark inhumanity, such aloof nonchalance, such breezy dismissal, such a dearth of true Christian charity … On any view, your letters to Mr Peter Roberts, and especially that of the 29th November, are abominations.” 

Eldon was on a roll: 

“Your correspondence, taken as a whole, reminds me of what – in my professional experience – one might expect to receive from the president of a suburban sporting club, who is seeking to justify his decision to dismiss the head coach over the alleged pilferage of a few pencils from the stationery cupboard, but anxious that the matter not be the subject of any close inquiry, lest evidence emerge of the fact that he has been caught with his own fingers deeply in the cash box. 

Phew! There was more vehemence from the silk but for a family journal like Justinian publication is best avoided. His Grace has not replied to His Lordship. 

We’ve also unearthed one of Tony Morris’s emails to broadcaster Alan Jones, sent in April this year in which he criticised council chairman Dan O’Connor, “who has chosen (for whatever reason) never to enter into the estate of holy matrimony, despite being aged in his early 50s”. 

This is a strange thing to point out to Alan Jones, who is not only a bachelor but a “confirmed bachelor”. 

Great patches of Eldon’s electrifying prose would qualify for a Bulwer-Lytton writing award. 

So far, the outpourings from the old guard have left the school council unmoved. The building is still called The Centenary Library and the Charities Commission has not yet given a considered reply.  

See:

Complaint to Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission, with attachments 

Letters:

Peter Roberts to Aspinall, January 2017 (redacted) 

Peter Roberts to Aspinall, April 2017 

Aspinall to Peter Roberts, April 2017 

For good measure, here’s a snip from All Gas and Gaiters …