A principal of a top Sydney private school has told the abuse royal commission his school's failure to report an indecent assault to police was not influenced by his concern for the school's reputation.
Dr Timothy Hawkes, the principal of the prestigious King's School, faced the commission in Sydney on Monday over his school's handling of an incident at a camp in 2013 in which a boy ejaculated on a fellow student's sleeping bag.
The victim, a boarder referred to as CLC, was called crude names after the incident and relentlessly bullied to the point of trying to run away and ultimately left the school.
King's did not formally report the cadet camp incident to police, despite advice from an officer that the incident was likely to be "assault with an act of indecency" and should be reported, the commission heard.
Counsel assisting David Lloyd referred to an email from Dr Hawkes to other private school heads about his attitude to reporting abuse following negative media reports about sex abuse allegations at Trinity Grammar School in 2000.
"If in reporting an incident, it means the broad flapping ears of the press will be allowed to sensationalise the case on the front page of their newspapers, then this will be a very strong disincentive to report anything," he wrote in the email tendered to the commission.
"No threats from legal quarters will come close to persuading a head that it is worth reporting something if this is the reward they are going to reap."
Dr Hawkes said he still stood by his comments in the 2000 email.
But when asked if he had the same concerns about adverse publicity 13 years later in relation to CLC, Dr Hawkes replied: "No, I did not."
"Let's try and make sure that things that are reported to the police and DoCs (now Family and Community Services) are then not passed on possibly to the media - that was my point there," he said.
A NSW police detective told the commission King's not only failed to make a formal report to police about the ejaculation incident, but conducted an inappropriate investigation of its own.
"They did certain things that aren't too dissimilar to a criminal investigation," Detective Sergeant Matthew Munro said.
"There is no evidence ... that any of the parents were consulted prior to the interviews.
"Three well-educated middle-aged men interviewing a witness to a sexual incident, I think, is completely inappropriate."
Det Sgt Munro investigated the school in 2014 about whether it had concealed a serious indictable offence - an act of indecency - but no charges were laid.
Dr Hawkes said it was hard to completely eradicate bullying because there would always be some individuals "hell-bent on creating misery".
The commission earlier heard Dr Hawkes told the school bursar that CLC's father should not be allowed to merge the two matters of bullying and non-payment of fees.
The school had pressured CLC's parents to pay outstanding fees of $25,000 and considered calling in a debt collection agency.
Hearings into the The King's School have concluded, with the inquiry set to examine Shalom Christian College, Queensland later this week.
