Lucy Perry received a standing ovation yesterday when she gave evidence against Knox headmaster Dr Ian Paterson at the Royal Commission into sexual abuse at the elite boys school.
Perry, now the CEO of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia (Australia), told the Royal Commission she was groped by Paterson when she was just 15. She described an incident where the headmaster touched her inappropriately while on stage rehearsing a play, in front of a large group of Knox students.
She said the students cheered when they saw Paterson grope her, and Paterson himself joined in and chuckled.
Perry came forward with her evidence in 2009, when reports began to emerge about abuse at the school. She reported the incident to the NSW police, but said she did not wish to press charges. She did, however, offer to make a statement about the incident to help their investigations.
“I would describe it as between a pat and a grope. He then slid his hand right down to cup my buttocks and . . . touch my genitals outside my clothing,” she told the commission yesterday.
“I saw Paterson had what I would describe as a creepy look of satisfaction on his face.”
She also told the commission that the incident, as well as Paterson and the male students’ response to it, made her feel “humiliated”.
“I thought he was demonstrating to the Knox boys that (it) is perfectly acceptable, even admirable, to be disrespectful to girls and was promoting a misogynist attitude,” she said.
When asked if she was sure the boys had seen what happened, she replied: “I had to assume that the audience of boys had seen it because of their reaction. They roared with approval.”
And she was right to assume that. Last night, after the commission had adjourned for the day, a former Knox student contacted Perry. He told her he was on the stage that day, and he saw everything. He said he remembers it clearly.
Perry was defiant in cross-examination when Paterson’s counsel, Jim Harrowell, questioned her story and suggested Paterson was merely trying to ‘reposition’ Perry for the scene.
“I would suggest to you Mr Harrowell that positioning girls by their bottom is not the best way to do that,” she said.
And when Harrowell suggested Paterson did not grope Perry, she said: “You are paid to suggest he didn’t do that.”
Harrowell then asked Perry if she could be misremembering the incident. Again, Perry was forthright.
“I was 15 years old and an old man was touching me where he shouldn’t. I will never forget that,” she told the commission.
After the hearing adjourned, Perry said outside the commission that she hoped her evidence would assist other survivors who had been through more serious ordeals than she had.
“Mine was a very small incident compared to some of the stuff that these students have been through.”
Later that evening, she tweeted: “I did not expect a standing ovation when I walked out of the Royal Commission today. Survivors are much braver than me.”