BOYS CLUB
FOUR CORNERS
17 February 2020
CHANT: I wish that all the ladies (I wish that all the ladies)
Were holes in the road (were holes in the road)
If I was a dump truck (If I was a dump truck)
I’d fill them with my load (I’d fill them with my load)
LOUISE MILLIGAN: In the final term of the 2019 school year, a scandal erupted when this footage of students singing an offensive chant on public transport went viral.
LUKE MACARONAS, St Kevin’s College Class of 2016: I wish that all the ladies.
FINLEY TOBIN, St Kevin’s College Class of 2017: Were holes in the road.
COCO SMITH, Melbourne Girls’ College, Class of 2019: If I were a was a dump truck.
EARTHA HEWETT, Melbourne Girls’ College, Class of 2019: I’d fill them with my load. Ah, you can’t forget words like that. They’re burnt into my brain, forever.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The incident plunged one of Australia’s most prestigious schools into a PR disaster and provoked a fierce discussion about private boys’ school culture.
COCO SMITH: I’d been putting up with this for my whole high school experience. And my sister had done the same. And I was so angry. I was so infuriated that they thought they could get away with this and no-one would care.
NEW FINLEY TOBIN: I feel that we should have been given, probably, the education to know that that’s not okay and to call it out when it happened.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: And you didn’t get that education?
FINLEY TOBIN: I don’t think so.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Until now St Kevin’s College has kept far more serious incidents under wraps.
PARIS STREET, St Kevin’s College, Class of 2017: I wouldn’t want to go to sleep at night because I wouldn’t want to get up in the morning to go to school.
JUDY COURTIN, Lawyer: He was crushed by the institution. He was crushed.
LUKE MACARONAS, St Kevin’s College Class of 2016: This conversation is really hard to have. And this story will hurt people. But we have to go through that pain in order for there to be change.
LOUISE MILLIGAN, Reporter: Tonight on Four Corners, what’s going on inside the elite boy’s school, St Kevin’s College? We investigate how a desire to protect reputation at all costs is causing a toxic culture.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: It’s the start of a new school year and an entire school is gathering at St Patrick’s Cathedral for its traditional annual mass. St Kevin’s was established by the Christian Brothers as a young gentlemen’s college for Catholic boys.
PARIS STREET, St Kevin’s College Class of 2017: I think as soon as you put the blazer on, you feel like you belong somewhere and you’re part of something. And I think that’s what makes it so appealing.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: It’s a wealthy school in Toorak, Melbourne’s most expensive suburb, and its fees are $20,000 a year.
SUSAN LACKNER, Former St Kevin’s College Parent: St Kevin’s promotes a belief that you’re very privileged and lucky to have your son to go there.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The College has an enviable academic record, with Year 12 students often topping the state.
JO O’BRIEN, Former St Kevin’s College parent: Your son’s basically guaranteed a good result. Great teachers, especially in Year 12, the English teachers are the best in the State. Great sporting reputation. Accessible. It’s in Toorak. Everybody wants to go there.
LUKE MACARONAS, St Kevin’s College, Class of 2016: Because it is a private institution, and because it has to keep these promises that it offers to parents about good grades and good performance and strong students, reputation is everything at a place like this.
FINLEY TOBIN, St Kevin’s College Class of 2017: It’s a school that has a lot of demand and parents are putting their kids in waiting lists as soon as they’re born and things like that.
LOUISE MILLIGAN, Reporter: What does that do in terms of people’s ability to dissent, whether it be parents or boys?
FINLEY TOBIN: There is I think the idea that if you take the wrong step, that it could be over.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: St Kevin’s belongs to a group of schools known as APS… or Associated Public Schools. They include some of Australia’s most elite private schools. Schools with rowing sheds, and Latin mottos and time-honoured schoolboy chants.
CHANT: Sha la la la la la-la, Oh Skevies Boys, Sha la la la la la-la, Oh Skevies Boys, Sha la la la la la-la, Oh Skevies Boys , Sha la la la la la-la, Oh Skevies Boys! Sha la la la la la-la, Oh Skevies Boys!
JO O’BRIEN: It’s full on. I mean, there’s so many boys together and there’s a lot of chanting, a lot of screaming. High adrenaline, lots of fist punching. St Kevin’s always do well.
CHANT: Where we come from?
So we tell them (So we tell them)
We are from Toorak (We are from Toorak)
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The annual APS athletics carnival is compulsory for all St Kevin’s students, or Skevies Boys, as they call themselves.
CHANT: We are the army! The mighty Skevies army! (The mighty Skevies army!)
FINLEY TOBIN: There’s about 2000 boys in the stand, which is far greater than any other school. So yeah, it’s definitely a show of our dominance and the fact that we have the pride to come en masse like that is definitely part of our culture. And at the same time, that turns out into a bit of a hive mind or a bit of a frenzied state where people think it’s OK to shout in public and yell at other schools.
LUKE MACARONAS: Exactly what makes St Kevin’s so celebrated is exactly its Achilles heel as well. It has a fantastic culture of collegiality, of community and that is also where this idea of pride and shame is located too. So, absolutely, when you’re amongst this crowd, it is an incredible feeling of bravado and strength. That is also the feeling of being in an army and going to war. And parents say that. And when you watch boys run onto a field or when you watch boys sing these kinds of things, they do sound like they’re going to war.
CHANT: We are the army!
The mighty Skevies army! (The mighty Skevies army!)
The mighty, mighty, mighty Skevies army!
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Wherever they go, the St Kevin’s boys in their boldly-striped blazers can’t be missed.
COCO SMITH, Melbourne Girls’ College, Class of 2019: Just like seeing these blue, yellow and green striped blazers, you can see them from so far away and they’re … I get a feeling of, I’m on edge, immediately.
COCO SMITH: I caught the train with them for many years and I’ve been yelled at, stared at, I can hear conversation about other girls, or myself, or taking photos under dresses. Just disgusting stuff that I, yeah, I would not stand for. And I would have spoken up about it if there weren’t so many of the boys, the St Kevin’s boys, there. All in support of what was going on, the behaviour that was going on.
EARTHA HEWETT, Melbourne Girls’ College, Class of 2019: I don’t think these people are bad people. They think, they’re in a big group all together, it’s hard. You know, you’re in this bubble, you’re in this vacuum. And you don’t really hear anything else except for the voices that are shouting the loudest.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: This sort of behaviour was displayed in a lurid rap song about St Kevin’s sister school, Sacre Coeur, which was posted online in 2018.
RAP SONG: Fuck Sacre Coeur, bunch of fake bitches
Give a bitch first time, she can’t take 10 inches
Only 17 been fucking your bitch since 13
W-A-V-Y on these streets, getting up heaps
Wavy that’s me, popping up on trams
Fucking everywhere
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Eartha Hewett, who was then at Melbourne Girls’ College, ended her friendship with one of the rappers.
EARTHA HEWETT: I think that these people are really kind and loving and sweet when they’re by themselves, but then they’re surrounded by their mates and you’re all doing, I guess, you know, silly stuff, and all your friends are like, “oh boys will be boys. This is what we do”. It’s like, no. This behaviour is wrong. It’s not “boys will be boys”. It’s not anything like that. It’s not OK.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The boys were quietly punished.
EARTHA HEWETT: You know what happened? What, he got a suspension. That’s like, every kid’s dream anyway. So now you don’t have to go to school for a couple of weeks. And then it’s all fine and all your mates are like “yeah! Cool song, man!” You know? “Good on you!” And it’s like, they’re cheering you on. You’re like, “oh yeah, this is funny”. It’s just cheap laughs, really. That’s what it is. It’s not funny.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Luka Kiernan was in Year 12 at St Kevin’s at the time.
LUKA KIERNAN, St Kevin’s College, Class of 2018: There was no real response from the school, beyond the disciplinary stuff, to actually challenge the incredibly sexist environment that arose, that had caused this sort of thing.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Finley Tobin is also an old boy.
FINLEY TOBIN: So, in 2015, when I was in Year 10, there was an incident where a boy took a photo up the skirt of a female teacher. And I believe that photo was spread around to quite a number of boys in my year level and probably other year levels as well. And that boy was eventually expelled. Although, there was no real acknowledgement of the incident by the school, there was no-one telling us that was unacceptable. Not even just to acknowledge that it had happened. And I feel like that that probably should have been an opportunity for the school to educate us about those sorts of issues about respecting women.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: On that now-infamous Saturday last Spring, the St Kevin’s boys were making their way to the APS athletics carnival when they began to chant.
CHANT: I wish that all the ladies (I wish that all the ladies)
Were waves in the ocean (were waves in the ocean)
And I was a surfer (and I was a surfer)
I’d ride ‘em with my motion (I’d ride ‘em with my motion)
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The St Kevin’s College students didn’t pause to think that another passenger might film them.
COCO SMITH: So they didn’t, I guess they didn’t, think that anyone would care or that anyone would call them out for it. It’s been going on for years.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: A woman passenger sent the chant video to the ABC.
RAF EPSTEIN, Radio presenter: Melanie joins us on the phone. She was on that tram on Saturday morning. Thanks for having a word to us, “Melanie”.
“MELANIE”: That’s OK Raf.
RAF EPSTEIN: How did it feel hearing that?
“MELANIE”: I felt quite violated, actually. I thought it was disgusting.
CHANT: I wish that all the ladies (I wish that all the ladies)
Were holes in the road (were holes in the road)
If I was a dump truck (If I was a dump truck)
I’d fill them with my load (I’d fill them with my load)
FINLEY TOBIN: The chants are definitely evidence of a toxic culture. And even though it might only be a few boys who are leading those chants, there are lot of boys who would just turn a blind eye and almost let those happen. I feel that we should have been given, probably, the education to know that that’s not OK, and to call it out when it happened.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: So you sang this chant?
LUKE MACARONAS: Yeah, I’ve sung it.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Why?
LUKE MACARONAS: I don’t know. I was 15 years old. I was amongst a group of boys. It was easier not to think about what I was doing than it was to actually take responsibility.
CHANT: I’d ride ‘em with my motion (I’d ride ‘em with my motion), a-oom-papa-oom-pa
LUKE MACARONAS: Every guy knows the hot shame of being surrounded by his mates and looking weak or looking stupid. That is the, that is the main force that is driving this kind of behaviour, is, is, the fact that everyone falls into line, because that’s what you’re expected to do.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: When the tram chant went public, former St Kevin’s student Luka Kiernan spoke out on social media.
LUKA KIERNAN: I wrote a post on Facebook saying that, actually, this was not some incredibly outlandish, unremarkable, out of character, when actually, it was completely in line with the type of thing that St Kevin’s boys do – it was a real type of typical of the sexist culture at St Kevin’s.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: That same night, another group of St Kevin’s boys did it again.
CHANT: I wish that all the ladies (I wish that all the ladies)
Were holes in the road (were holes in the road)
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Luka Kiernan faced retribution for calling out the behaviour of boys from a school where loyalty is everything and reputation is fiercely guarded.
LUKA KIERNAN: I had my portrait defaced, with the words “traitor” and “snitch”. “Why would you dog the boys, Luka?” That sort of stuff.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Why would you dog the boys?
LUKA KIERNAN: Yeah, yeah, “what about the boys?” They perceive any attack on St Kevin’s to be an attack on them personally. And they make the fact that they went to St Kevin’s, because they’ve been indoctrinated with the fact that they went to St Kevin’s, that that should be a key part of their identity. Whenever that part of their identity is attacked, they respond to it really aggressively.
FINLEY TOBIN: I think there definitely is the idea that if you go against the school, it’s something to be sort of ashamed of, because we are sort of brought up from Year 7 to Year 12 on that idea of being brothers. I think there’s a phrase that one of our vice-principals used, which was “Band of Brothers”.
LUKE MACARONAS: When you live your life in an environment where you are told how important you are and how bright your future is, you begin to feel untouchable and you begin to feel like you can do anything. And there’s an irony in that - in that it is true that these students from these kinds of students from these kinds of schools will be the most powerful people in the next hundred years, because of the privilege that they have, and I think there needs to be more done to teach these boys how they need to be aware of that privilege and how they should behave.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: When the chant first went public, several teachers called a union meeting to discuss sexism at the school, saying that women lacked a voice at St Kevin’s. Headmaster Stephen Russell suspended the boys and wrote to parents: “To say that I am upset, frustrated and angry would be fair. As a husband, a father of daughters, a brother of four sisters, a son, and, I hope, a good friend and decent colleague to many women, I know this behaviour cannot go unchallenged.”
EARTHA HEWETT: It shouldn’t matter whether you have a wife or a daughter or a sister. Just like if you didn’t have that person in your life, if you weren’t married to a woman, or if you didn’t have a daughter, if you didn’t have sisters, or your Mum wasn’t in your life, does that mean that you get to treat people in a way that’s not OK?
LOUISE MILLIGAN: In recent years, St Kevin’s was caught up in one of the biggest scandals to hit the Catholic Church. A jury found Cardinal George Pell guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys. The two boys were scholarship students at St Kevin’s because they were members of the Cathedral choir. One of the boys became a teenage heroin addict and later died.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: After Pell was found guilty, St Kevin’s Headmaster, Stephen Russell, published an article on the school’s website by Jesuit priest, Frank Brennan. In it, Father Brennan said, “I was very surprised by the verdict, in fact, I was devastated”, and he prayed that George Pell wasn’t the victim of “a nation in search of a scapegoat”.
JUDY COURTIN, Lawyer: The distribution of Frank Brennan’s message to all and sundry at St Kevin’s sends a very clear message that the victims, the students, the boys, are trouble for the school. And we support the offenders. I mean, it’s blatant, it’s black and white.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Meanwhile, the dead choirboy’s parents heard nothing from the school. Some St Kevin’s parents were appalled.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: How would you characterise that response by the school?
SUSAN LACKNER: Immoral. Unethical. And inhumane.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: After criticism from parents, the Headmaster put out a statement saying the Archdiocese of Melbourne was responsible for the choir, but, “St Kevin’s College is committed to child safe practice. The care, the safety and the welfare of students are embedded in policies and practices which ensure a commitment to zero tolerance of child abuse.”
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Paris Street was nine years old when his parents sent him to St Kevin’s College.
PARIS STREET: The first day in the quadrangle at the junior school, everyone was out there. I was with my twin brother. It was probably one of the happiest days of my life. Yeah.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: By age 14, Paris was a talented runner. His coach was a St Kevin’s Old Boy who had trained students at the school for 40 years. His name was Peter Kehoe.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Did you suspect any strange motives in him?
PARIS STREET: No. I don’t think any 13-14-year old should even have to think about that when you’ve been put into this school that you’d think would, you know that would be the last thing you’d even have to worry about.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: So you felt protected and safe?
PARIS STREET: Yeah. Yeah. Especially because of, you know, I was at St Kevin’s, he was a St Kevin’s running coach. It sort of felt like nothing could go wrong.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: In 2013, Peter Kehoe left the school, but remained with the St Kevin’s Amateur Athletics Club, which trained on school grounds. Kehoe convinced Paris, who was in Year 8, to train with him alone. Paris’ mother says she raised concerns about this with the school’s welfare officer, who spoke to the Headmaster.
CAROLINE REDMOND, Paris’ mother: She rang me back and she said, “Mr Russell just wants you to know that Peter is a good person, of good character, and you have nothing to worry about”.
LOUISE: How did he know that?
CAROLINE: Well, I don’t know how he knew that.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: At about that time, Peter Kehoe began sending her son questionable Facebook messages:
“Hot stuff. I bet you would have won a wet [t]-shirt competition!”
“Maybe you needed another hug from me”.
“Love you muchly…”
Of a St Kevin’s teacher he disliked, Kehoe wrote: “Suck on that… you wanker…” and “…that is certainly one head I wouldn’t fuck…”
PARIS STREET: I just thought it was odd. I didn’t think it was, at that point, illegal, criminal. I didn’t understand the true intentions.
CAROLINE REDMOND: It’s insidious the way it happens. You do have a little bit of a sense that there’s something not quite right but you don’t actually know what it is.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The messages continued:
“Ah, the pain of unrequited love!”
“I think you’re the best thing since sliced bread…”
“Love you. Xxxxxxxx”
LOUISE MILLIGAN: One day, as Paris was training alone with Kehoe, the coach’s behaviour became more disturbing.
PARIS STREET: I said that I had a Japanese oral presentation that I needed to finish. He said, “that’s not the only oral you’ll have to do”.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: What did you think when he said that?
PARIS STREET: Yeah, felt very uncomfortable. But I felt like I was in a position where I couldn’t do anything.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Kehoe insisted Paris come back to his place to look at some of his old St Kevin’s year books.
PARIS STREET: I’m drinking my chocolate milk, which is what I did after every training, just for recovery, a little bit must have spilt, and he said, “oh the sight of that dripping down your face”, which was another comment that he made that made me feel really tense, scared.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Kehoe showed Paris pictures of four St Kevin’s students whom he said had killed themselves because of abuse by Christian Brothers.
PARIS STREET: That was the point when I started getting, I started understanding what was going on, because, yeah. And then he pointed out another boy and said that he’d wished he’d put his hand on his butt, or something.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: That he was a cutie.
PARIS STREET: That he was a cutie and that he wished he’d put his hand on his bum during that picture.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Kehoe then escorted Paris to his bedroom, telling him he was free to jump in his bed any time he liked.
PARIS STREET: Probably one of the most scary times in my life. I’m holding my bag and I’m about to leave and he said, “do you know why I was looking forward to today’s training session?” So it was a Thursday. And I said “no”. And then, he said, “because on Tuesday,” so two days before, which is when we train as well, he said that so on Tuesday, that he had got an erection, and that he pre-cummed. Then he asked me if I know what pre-cum is, and then I said, “no”. Then he said, “it’s the premature stages of ejaculation”. Then he said, “you can lick it off whenever you like”.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Luckily, Paris’ mother called, so Kehoe had to drive him home. The first person Paris told was his friend Ned O’Brien, who was also coached by Kehoe.
NED O’BRIEN, St Kevin’s College, Class of 2017: Paris came up to me, at recess or lunch, showing me a few messages, saying that he thinks Peter might be gay.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: What did you say?
NED O’BRIEN: I said to him, “I think it’s a bit more than that. I don’t think you should be concerned as to his sexuality – more as to if he’s coming on to you in a predatory sense”. I went home and told my Mum.
JO O’BRIEN, Ned’s mother: My response was firstly shock. I was proud that Ned could talk to me about this. That he cared enough about his friend to tell me. I tried to calm Ned down. I told him he did the right thing by telling me. And this is something that I needed to talk to Paris’ Mum about.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: What was your reaction, when Paris told you what had happened?
CAROLINE REDMOND: Well, viscerally, almost like, it added up. It was like “OK. That explains it all”. OK. So I said, “Paris, go and write it all down”.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The following day, Paris gave a statement to police.
PARIS STREET: And then everything that came after that day in my life completely changed.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: And your feelings about St Kevin’s?
PARIS STREET: Yeah.
POLICE OFFICER: Peter, as I mentioned to you earlier, it’s in relation to an allegation made by a client of yours, Paris Street. What can you tell me about the relationship you have with Paris?
PETER KEHOE: I’ve been advised by my lawyer to make no comment and my answer to all further questions will be no comment.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: In October 2014, Peter Kehoe was charged with grooming for sexual conduct with a child under 16.
POLICE OFFICER: Do you understand all that?
PETER KEHOE: Sorry I was…I was elsewhere.
POLICE OFFICER: OK
PETER KEHOE: Say it again please.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Barrister Patrick Noonan was a committee member of the St Kevin’s Amateur Athletics Club. The club was notified of the allegations and resolved to expel Peter Kehoe.
PATRICK NOONAN, Barrister and ex-St Kevin’s Amateur Athletics Club: Clearly it was not the way someone should be interacting with a child, and we couldn’t therefore trust him to do so, to be interacting with junior club members. We had no capacity to supervise him. He did training at different venues, he would be interstate, so there was no way he could stay at the club if this was the way he behaved.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: But one club member who opposed the expulsion and supported Peter Kehoe was Luke Travers. Mr Travers was a St Kevin’s Old Boy and is still the College’s Dean of Sport. He employed Kehoe as school coach and helped appoint him as a life member of the athletics club. Soon after Paris went to police, his mother had told Luke Travers what Kehoe had done to her son.
PATRICK NOONAN: And it was about that time, shortly after, that he gave a written reference, explaining that he was the Dean of Sport at St Kevin’s, saying that Peter was given his unqualified endorsement, that he was second to none, endorsing his work with children.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The reference spoke of Kehoe’s …commitment, enthusiasm, reliability… in all of these areas, he is faultless. Citing Kehoe’s life membership of the club and induction into its Hall of Fame, it said these honours indicate: the high esteem and repute he is held in in these communities.
PATRICK NOONAN: It certainly lacked some critical information that someone wanting to potentially employ Peter to work with children would have wanted to know. In that sense, it was potentially misleading to any employer.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: That he was being accused of a child sex offence?
PATRICK NOONAN: That is probably a relevant factor if you’re employing someone to work with children, yes.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: With criminal charges on foot, Paris and his friend Ned assumed St Kevin’s would support them as witnesses in the trial. But neither of them heard from the school.
NED O’BRIEN: Although obviously that wasn’t the main reason for doing any of this, I thought at least we’d be accoladed or rewarded in some way just to get the word out and just to be appreciated for what we did. I thought that it was a pretty big thing to do. But no, none of that really happened.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Ned’s mother didn’t hear from the St Kevin’s Headmaster until the day he had to appear in court.
JO O’BRIEN: The first time I spoke to Mr Russell was the first day of the hearing – so that was about seven months after Ned told me what had happened.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: How did that come about?
JO O’BRIEN: The lady at the school, in the office, called me in the morning saying that Ned wasn’t at school, why wasn’t he at school? And I said, “well why don’t you go and ask Mr Russell? He knows where Ned is right now”.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: She says Headmaster Stephen Russell then called her that morning, wanting to know whether the boys would be wearing their St Kevin’s blazers to court.
JO O’BRIEN: I thought, “wow, you really do want to cover this up. You really do want to keep this quiet”.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Robert Richter, the famous and formidable QC who represented Pell, was engaged to defend Kehoe.
JUDY COURTIN: Paris was cross-examined by Mr Richter for two days. Paris was 15 at the time. Now to be cross-examined by Mr Richter is a gruelling experience for anyone, but a child who had been sexually abused and not being supported by his school, that’s quite a remarkable experience and can be potentially a devastating experience.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Paris was also devastated when the St Kevin’s Dean of Sport, Luke Travers, gave character evidence at trial supporting Peter Kehoe. When the Prosecutor asked whether it was appropriate for a teacher or a coach to text-message a student saying “I love you” or “kiss kiss kiss”, the St Kevin’s Dean of Sport replied “it depends upon the context”.
PARIS STREET: I was a student at the school and to have someone personally and professionally endorse him and support him, as I read in the emails and as I heard in Luke Travers” evidence in court, supporting him. Yeah, it makes you feel betrayed.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The President of the St Kevin’s Amateur Athletics Club wrote to the school expressing “disgust” Mr Travers had given character evidence for Kehoe instead of supporting the boys. Luke Travers then emailed the club saying, “bugger off and mind your own business” and threatening legal action.
PATRICK NOONAN: He was threatening us for having spoken with the Headmaster, which really meant that we couldn’t raise concerns with the Headmaster without being subjected to threats. He was very aggressive in saying that he would come after us legally if we pursue the issue any further.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Some club members with sons at St Kevin’s insisted Luke Travers have no contact with their boys, given his support for Kehoe.
PATRICK NOONAN: Senior club members have asked the school to ensure that Luke has nothing to do with their sons, including that he won’t be teaching them, and that commitment has been given.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: On April 30, 2015, Peter Kehoe was found guilty of grooming. He was sentenced to a community corrections order and placed on the sex offenders register for eight years.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The evidence before the court, including by St Kevin’s Dean of Sport Luke Travers, remained secret. That’s because at the time Paris Street was a child, and the court had to be closed to the public. What has also never been revealed until now is that at the end of the proceedings, another character reference was handed up to the Magistrate for the convicted perpetrator, Peter Kehoe. That reference was written by the Headmaster of St Kevin’s College: Stephen Russell.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: How did you feel about that?
PARIS STREET: Just gutted. Yeah, gutted and just, like, flicked off. Like, “this is how we think about you, we don’t care”. Like we, yeah.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: How did you feel about the fact that Stephen Russell wrote that reference?
JO O’BRIEN: That says it all. He should not be the Headmaster. That’s all I - honestly. That’s just not on. Why would he want to get involved in that? It’s crazy.
JUDY COURTIN, Lawyer for Paris Street: It is quite extraordinary that a Headmaster and the Dean of Sport in particular, will basically disregard the vulnerable student and support an offender. I mean, what planet are we on? And this is right at the hiatus of the Royal Commission. The knowledge was out there. These crimes were being exposed. The responses from the institutions such as St Kevin’s were being exposed. They were horrific. Where’s the lesson here? Nothing’s been learned. Nothing has been learned. And all at the expense of someone like Paris. It is just shocking and appalling. Where are the words?
SUSAN LACKNER: I was appalled. Absolutely appalled. This could have been my son, you know, could have been anybody’s son.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Then-St Kevin’s parent, Susan Lackner – who is a psychological therapist - wrote to the college expressing her concern about the treatment of Paris and Ned. The school dismissed her concerns.
SUSAN LACKNER: I would go to assemblies and before this event and I would sit there and think, this is an amazing school, I’m so grateful my children have got the opportunity, to be going here, that I was giving them this opportunity. And I would just sit there afterwards and just say, you know, this feels like propaganda to me. I just don’t believe anything that I’m hearing. They don’t walk their talk.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: After that time, the school would routinely request donations from parents. What was your response to that?
SUSAN LACKNER: I refused to give donations after that point.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Finley Tobin couldn’t believe what had happened to his St Kevin’s classmate.
FINLEY TOBIN: I had a sense that what I had been told by the school, about what they wanted to impart on me, was a bit of a lie. I felt as though I couldn’t believe a word they said about what they wanted for us to do in the community, how they wanted us to be good people. Because it completely went against their own values.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Headmaster Stephen Russell declined to be interviewed but said in a statement: “The actions of Peter Kehoe were completely unacceptable and St Kevin’s College strongly condemns them. After his conviction, he was immediately banned from entering the school or having any contact with the College or its students.”
LOUISE MILLIGAN: When Paris returned to St Kevin’s after a brief spell at another school, he was told he’d need to meet with the Dean of Sport, Luke Travers. The meeting was documented by a school psychologist.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: You asked Luke Travers, “what did you first think?” And he replied, “storm in a teacup”.
PARIS STREET: Huh. Yeah.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: And then it says, “did you want him found guilty or not guilty? As a friend I didn’t want him to be convicted”. You remember him saying that?
PARIS STREET: Mmm.
JUDY COURTIN: Now, to do that to a victim or a survivor of a sexual abuse, it’s hideous, it’s totally hideous. And I find this extraordinary too because one of the very, very clear salient messages from the Royal Commission was that the child’s needs must be paramount over and above everyone else. And that did not happen.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Paris Street later took legal action against the school. But when his lawyer attempted to get notes from St Kevin’s recording Paris’ meetings with the psychologist, she hit a brick wall.
JUDY COURTIN: And it took months, months, for us to receive those medical records. And we were gobsmacked, because they were highly redacted, even though they were our own client’s records.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: So they had gone, taken these records out of a locked cabinet, redacted them without his consent?
JUDY COURTIN: Yes.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: St Kevin’s blacked out ten pages of the counsellor’s notes… including the Dean of Sport’s meeting with Paris - when Luke Travers backed Kehoe not Paris: I felt obliged to support him. As a friend, I did not want him to be convicted.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: They’d also left out several pages… including one talking about the St Kevin’s leadership. It read that Paris: Feels that they had the power to do a great deal and chose to protect the school ahead of P’s wellbeing.
JUDY COURTIN: Well, it’s another example of trying to protect themselves. Trying to protect the name of St Kevin’s College.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: You felt that the leadership team chose to protect the school ahead of your wellbeing.
PARIS STREET: That’s what it felt like, yeah. I spiralled from there.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: You spiralled?
PARIS STREET: Yeah.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Your mental health?
PARIS STREET: Yeah.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: How badly?
PARIS STREET: Yeah, pretty badly.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Paris Street struggled through his last years of school at St Kevin’s.
PARIS STREET: Mum would drive me to school in the morning. Driving on the Boulevard, and then you’d see the big cross on the chapel that overlooks the Yarra – I’d see that and I’d just get triggered and would have a panic attack and would not want to go to school. I wouldn’t want to go to sleep at night because I wouldn’t want to get up in the morning to go to school.
JUDY COURTIN: He went from an A-grade student to having great difficulties with his work. He started to suffer terrible anxiety and panic attacks. He ended up being hospitalised, needing psychiatric care. He transitioned from a very confident, caring young man into a psychiatrically very unwell young man. He was crushed by the institution. He was crushed.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Headmaster Stephen Russell sent a letter to the school community last year when a former St Kevin’s Christian Brother was found guilty of historical child sex offences. It spoke of a commitment to “zero tolerance for child sexual abuse” and said, “Our duty of care to students, past and present, is our top priority”.
NED O’BRIEN: I think that’s incredibly hypocritical given what he did in 2015.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Do you think his actions match his words?
NED O’BRIEN: Definitely not.
JO O’BRIEN: I think they missed a golden opportunity to be trailblazers here and they really weren’t. And it’s such a shame.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Numerous current and former staff, students and parents from St Kevin’s have told Four Corners the school has a history of failing to deal with complaints of inappropriate behaviour. The governing body overseeing the college is investigating one complaint by a younger teacher, who alleges he was sexually harassed by a senior colleague.
“His actions not only shocked and disgusted me, but they made me feel powerless and worried about my job and future prospects, should I make a formal complaint.”
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The complaint was written last May, but St Kevin’s never responded in writing and only contacted the teacher in December when it began interviewing staff for the investigation.
DEB JAMES, General Secretary, Independent Education Union: I don’t think it’s good enough that you receive a written complaint in May and there’s effectively no resolution to the issue and that the member who has made the complaint is not communicated with again about the matters they’ve raised. Now that is simply not good enough.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The senior teacher has also flouted the school Code of Conduct that bans staff from posting photographs of students online or contacting the boys via social media.
FINLEY TOBIN: So about midway through my exams for Year 12, he sent me a message at about midnight.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The late night message sent by the teacher to Finley Tobin read: I do hope that your new room is all very satisfactory and that you’ve enjoyed being in it for to-night.
FINLEY TOBIN: That could have been a normal comment to make if it were during the day, or in person, but over Facebook message at about midnight seemed a bit odd.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: The teacher has denied any wrongdoing. Staff members at St Kevin’s have also made reports about two further male teachers. In those cases, the staff were worried the teachers were potentially grooming boys. One whistleblower is now alleging school management pressured her not to take it further.
DEB JAMES: These things should be taken seriously, and staff need to feel that the employers and senior staff leadership in their workplace is prepared to listen to them and act on what is being told to them.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Paris Street settled a civil claim with the school about his grooming case last August. He hopes telling his story will be the first step to moving on.
PARIS STREET: I don’t think I’d be able to live the rest of my life without telling anyone. Just for my own personal healing. It’s something that I think a lot of people should know about because it affects everyone. Can affect anyone. It affected me. Yeah.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: In recent days, St Kevin’s Headmaster Stephen Russell posted a prayer on the school’s website:
This is the time to be slow
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
PATRICK NOONAN: I think the fundamental lesson that needs to be learned is to stick to the fundamental values of the organisation. It exists only to support and give opportunities to children and you could never say that the handling of this situation reflected those values. And there needs to be a bit of courage to understand that you don’t need to let that define you. To go back to the fundamental values and stick by them.
LOUISE MILLIGAN: Stand up for the kids?
PATRICK NOONAN: Stand up for the kids.
LUKE MACARONAS: This conversation is really hard to have and this story will hurt people. But we have to go through that pain in order for there to be change. And also that pain is nothing in comparison to the suffering that victims and people who have experienced this stuff have gone through.
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