Facts
In 1988, the plaintiff was in year 8 at the Geelong College (defendant) when he started attending a building known as the ‘House of Guilds’ on the school’s premises after hours. The building contained a room fitted out to allow students to undertake woodwork projects, ceramics and other crafts (workshop).
The House of Guilds was also open to students from other schools and to members of the community upon payment of a membership fee. There was no process or procedure to review and approve applications for memberships by the school.
The perpetrator was an honorary member of the House of Guilds. He attended the workshop regularly and interacted with, and at times supervised, the students using this particular workshop, which included the plaintiff.
Between late 1988 to mid-1990, the plaintiff was sexually abused by the perpetrator on more than 50 occasions at the House of Guilds, in the perpetrator’s car and home. The perpetrator was in his 70s at the time and passed away in about 1999. He was not a teacher at the school nor did he ever qualify as a teacher.
The plaintiff kept the abuse a secret until in mid-2007 when he disclosed it to his immediate family following a psychological breakdown, while he was working for his then employer.
The plaintiff sought and received psychological treatment following the 2007 breakdown. In 2019, the plaintiff suffered another breakdown when he was retrenched from his position with his subsequent employer. He has not worked since being retrenched but has been receiving regular treatment with a psychologist.
The plaintiff’s treating psychologist and medico-legal expert diagnosed the plaintiff as suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalised anxiety disorder.
The plaintiff initiated proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria against the defendant, claiming damages in negligence and/or vicarious liability in respect of the psychiatric injury he sustained as a result of the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of the perpetrator.1
1 PCB v Geelong College [2021] VSC 633.
