Brave paramedic waited 40 years for justice after horrific faculty camp abuse

Ross Dobson was just nine years old when he was sexually abused by a teacher during a school camp and was made to wait almost 40 years for an apology from authorities

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A paramedic had to wait nearly four decades to see his abusive schoolteacher locked up – and to finally receive a formal apology from education bosses. Ross Dobson, 58, was just nine years old when he was targeted by predator Robert Leonard Morris during a 1977 school camp in Victoria, Australia.

Originally from Down Under, but now living in Buckinghamshire, the safeguarding expert has bravely opened up about the horrific ordeal, which completely derailed his youth and left him plagued by decades of nightmares.

The abuse began when Morris pulled the young boy onto his lap during a film screening. But the horror escalated later that night in the camp dorms.

Recalling the chilling moment, Ross said: “While everyone was getting ready for bed, he put his hand down my trousers inside my sleeping bag and began masturbating me. I was terrified they would know what was going on.

“During the night, I could smell him next to me. He knelt by my bed, and he began doing the same thing again and pushed the sleeping bag lower and lower.

“I felt his mouth on me. He orally raped me and then I felt his hand on the side of my face and realised he was trying to get me to open my mouth and put his penis in.

“I said no and rolled away, but I was terrified I was going to get into trouble for saying no to a teacher. He went back to bed, and I could hear a noise, so I looked over and he was masturbating himself.”

The depraved teacher assaulted him yet again the following morning. After returning home, a distraught Ross confided in his parents. His dad immediately alerted the school, who advised them to go to the police.

However, when the case went to trial in 1978, he said he was left feeling “belittled” and “ridiculed” by the defence barrister. Ross said: “When I came out of there, I broke down. I was just an absolute mess.”

Because of a historical legal technicality in Victoria regarding uncorroborated evidence from children under 14, Ross’s testimony was deemed inadmissible and Morris walked free. The devastating injustice completely broke the young boy.

Ross said: “When that fell apart, so did I. I lost all respect for anyone in authority and education. I went from being a happy, smart little kid, who followed the rules and was involved in everything to someone who didn’t want to do anything any more.”

The psychological fallout was severe. Ross suffered from extreme insomnia and violent night terrors.

He said: “The nightmares were just insane. I would wake up at night clenching my teeth so hard that I have no idea how they didn’t break.”

As a teenager, his life spiralled into drinking, street fighting and joining a skinhead gang. He credits taking up boxing at 19 and training to become a paramedic at 30 with saving his life. However, the emotional scars destroyed his personal life for years.

Ross said: “I look back at some of the things that I did as a young adult and the damage that I did to myself and to others – two divorces, numerous jobs and I could never settle in one spot.”

Justice finally caught up with Morris in March 2016, when he was jailed for six years for abusing six other boys. He later died behind bars.

Following the conviction, Ross joined a class-action lawsuit alongside nine other victims, resulting in a seven million Australian dollar (£3.7 million) settlement in 2017.

He also received an official letter from the Victorian State Government Department of Education and Training, which said: “The department failed to protect you at a time in your life when you were very vulnerable. On behalf of the department and its employees, I apologise to you unreservedly.”

But for Ross, the words on paper offered little comfort. He said: “When they gave us a figure and the apology letter came through, I just sat and cried because I felt a little bit empty.

“The nightmares and flashbacks…and then to have someone write a letter that felt very generic, it would have meant more if they had sat with the people that went through it and tried to understand what damage had been done.”

Now happily married to his wife Amanda and a proud dad, Ross moved to the UK in 2016. He has teamed up with the NSPCC to encourage other male survivors to speak out and is releasing a book about his journey, titled Box On, later this year. By speaking out now, he hopes to strip predators of their power.

He said: “I don’t want people to have to go through what I went through. I want them to realise that it’s OK. What happened to you was just a really awful thing that happened and it doesn’t define who you are. It doesn’t have to dictate what you do in the future.”

A spokesperson for the Victorian Department of Education said: “We apologise unreservedly for failing to protect the victims of this teacher when they were students in the 1970s.

“Since that time, there has been a complete overhaul of the way schools identify and respond to child abuse, to prevent this from happening again.”

If you or somebody you know has been affected by this story, contact Victim Support for free, confidential advice on 08 08 16 89 111 or visit their website, http://www.victimsupport.org.uk.