Victorian Education Department hired paedophile as teacher despite him declaring abuse conviction
A "psychopathic" paedophile, who later boasted of sexually abusing 2,000 boys, was employed as a Victorian Education Department school teacher despite declaring in a 1970s job application form that he was a convicted child abuser.
Warning: This story contains discussion of child sexual abuse and suicide.
According to documents seen by ABC Investigations, William Alexander Allen was employed for close to a decade as a Victorian Education Department high school music teacher despite admitting in a 1973 job application form that he'd been convicted in 1966 of sexually abusing two of his students during a previous stint of employment as a government school teacher.
Allen taught at Sunshine Technical School and St Albans Technical School between 1965 and 1966 before being convicted in November 1966 of indecency charges relating to one male and one female student. By his own admission, Allen was sentenced to three years of probation.
Allen's first term of employment with the Victorian Education Department was terminated in April 1966, but seven years after his criminal conviction, Allen was somehow re-hired by the Victorian Education Department under a different employee identification number.
Allen, who in the mid-1980s achieved infamy when he boasted during a television interview that he was a lifelong paedophile who'd abused 2,000 boys, taught at Albert Park High School between June 1973 and September 1975, then at Templestowe High School between September 1975 and his retirement in May 1982.
Survivors have told ABC Investigations that Allen was sexually abusing his students until the year of his retirement.
In addition to his 1966 child abuse conviction, Allen had been medically discharged from the Australian Army in the 1940s on the grounds that he suffered from a "psychopathic personality".
A survivor of abuse confirmed to ABC Investigations that the Victorian Education Department settled one civil litigation claim related to Allen in the mid-1990s and that other survivors are currently in the process of suing the department for their abuse by Allen.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-11/william-alexander-allen-hired-as-teacher-after-abuse-conviction/104081134