Dame Silvia Cartwright and Frances Joychild KC discuss the independent inquiry on the sexual abuse that has occurred at Dilworth School.
Video / NZ Herald
Opinion by Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He previously worked at the Reserve Bank, before travelling to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
THREE KEY FACTS
New Dilworth School trust chairman Jonathan Mason has apologised to survivors, to others who had died, to their families for previous sexual abuse at the school and to all past and present students and staff.
“It was the fault of some people at Dilworth who betrayed your trust and the trust of your mothers, fathers and whānau,” Mason said.
Sexual abuse was perpetrated by paedophiles working for Dilworth School from the 1950s until at least 2005.
Many of the boys who were abused were from poor families and had widowed parents.
The school is owned by Dilworth Trust Board, a registered charity that has set asideabout $55 million to settle abuse claims. The trust’s assets are currently valued at nearly $1.2 billion, so the compensation only represents about 3% of that number. A drop in the bucket.
A report on the abuse, following an independent inquiry led by Dame Silvia Cartwright, came with a distressing content warning: “We have chosen to include some of the former students’ experiences in their own words”. It goes on to say that “students were extensively groomed and abused by Dilworth tutors, housemasters, chaplains, teachers, scout volunteers, staff friends and associates and friends of friends”.
Had the abuse been reported to police and not covered up by Dilworth, the trust would have likely gone bankrupt. No one would have wanted anything to do with the place.
Instead, the trust has emerged as one of New Zealand’s 10 richest charities. Most of the other nine are owned by our public universities or were set up by iwi after Treaty settlements.
Dilworth successfully managed its reputation for decades by suppressing evidence about the sexual assaults. It thereby stayed out of trouble while quietly adding to its vast wealth.
Almost 200 Dilworth students have now provided information about what went on. Payouts per victim range from $0 to $200,000. However, Ministry of Justice statistics show, in general, only about 6% of sexual abuse victims come forward.
Had all Dilworth victims received compensation and it properly valued their physical and mental wellbeing losses, as an economist, I believe the bill would add up to more than the trust’s entire assets today.
Dilworth’s cover-up meant many victims have long since died — so no reparations for them. The trivial abuse payouts the trust is now making don’t even dent its finances.
A not-unrelated scenario occurred after World War II, when Swiss banks tried to hold onto the dormant accounts of dead people who couldn’t turn up to claim them.
As for the six male Dilworth Trust Board trustees, they received a total income from the trust of between $500,000 and $600,000 last year. For what? Attending meetings? The eight members of the trust’s senior management group take $2.8 million in remuneration a year. Meanwhile, in 2023, accounting firm KPMG charged $115,000 for its services.
Not to be left behind, the bankers in charge of Dilworth’s share portfolio take nearly $200,000 in management fees year after year. Who knows how much the real estate managers of Dilworth’s $730m “investment property” empire get paid? Nearly $4m a year is sucked out of Dilworth by a small group of management types.
Dilworth has set aside about $55 million to pay to settle abuse claims.
Has New Zealand acquired an abundance of advisers benefitting from charitable trusts? Large cash flows are generated by many charities since they pay no tax.
Shame about the left-over scraps thrown to the abuse victims.
Things get even stranger. Why did the trust open the $50m credit line it now has with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China? It costs between $3m and $4m in annual interest payments. However, Dilworth already holds $135m in cash and liquid funds. Why leverage up?
The trust enjoys an annual $870,000 grant from the Government. You, the taxpayer, support it. Private schools get a public subsidy, but why Dilworth, with its history of sexual abuse, cover-ups, billion-dollar wealth, and annual income of $45m?
Let’s not finish with a conclusion. Other than to say Dilworth College should continue, but as a charter school. The trust, on the other hand, should end and have its assets confiscated under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009. They should be put into a fund to help the victims of abuse. Its ongoing existence is a disgrace. It sits as proof that crime pays and cover-ups are rewarded.
The independent report admits sexual abuse was not reported to prevent reputational damage. That lack of damage can be valued. The trust is now worth $1.2 billion.
No one will ever hear about the trauma suffered by the victims who never came forward, or the anguish of the abused who have died.
Yet the board and its managers are getting highly paid with money the trust would never have owned had the terrible historical crimes at the school not been suppressed.
Dilworth’s cover-up has meant that many of the victims will never get a cent.
