A prestigious Brisbane school's highest authority has broken down while saying insurance concerns forced the school to deny liability for child sex abuse suffered by dozens of its students.
On Friday, Brisbane Grammar School Board of Trustees Chairman Howard Stack told the child sexual abuse royal commission the school settled with more than 70 boys over the claims.
He appeared to choke up on the witness stand when asked whether the school acted fairly in denying liability for the abuse.
Former Brisbane Grammar School student BQK outside the Brisbane Magistrates Court. Photo: Jorge Branco
"From the boy's point of view, I can understand that totally," he said.
"I had no option. I was between a rock and a hard place.
"If the school was going to get indemnity we could not admit legal liability. When all this happened, I came out so fast and admitted moral responsibility.
"I could do no more."
Earlier in the week a former student told the commission he had suffered an organic brain injury as a result of Lynch's abuse and settled with the school for just $26,000. Former Grammar headmaster Maxwell Howell said the figure was more like $45,000 but admitted to being effected by the victims testimony.
Questioning on Friday morning focused on accounts from two former students and a parent who said they told Mr Howell they were abused by Lynch and he failed to act.
Mr Stack said he believed at least one of the students spoke to Dr Howell about the abuse but questioned the content of that exact conversation.
Dr Howell denied these claims up to his death in 2011 but Mr Stack told the commission it wasn't his job to question the former headmaster's credibility.
Mr Stack admitted if those claims were correct, the former headmaster's failure to deal with Lynch led directly to potentially hundreds of boys being sexually abused and constituted a gross dereliction of duty.
He accepted if he really was told about the abuse, Dr Howell should have sacked Lynch, and reported the complaints to the teaching board and police.
Mr Stack also accepted the school's failure to monitor Lynch, essentially trusting him to do the right thing, was a grossly inadequate system.
He told the royal commission there was a dispute with the school's insurer at the time about the school's indemnity, as a result of the claims Mr Howell knew of the abuse.
Survivors of Lynch's "relaxation sessions", which the royal commission earlier heard included sticking acupuncture needles in a boy's testicles and raping another boy until he bled, previously stated they had complained to three other teachers at the school about the counsellor.
All three teachers denied or said they couldn't recall these conversations.
Mr Stack will return to the witness stand on Friday afternoon.
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