Former students of Rosebud High drama teacher Peter Sutton speak out on alleged abuse

Eight people have come forward to Arnold Thomas & Becker with accusations against Rosebud High drama teacher Peter Sutton following years of sexual abuse throughout the 1980s, when the students were only teenagers.

On occasion, the students were allegedly told to wear black leather chaps and see-through singlets and pose for photos for Sutton. These were part of a photo album he kept with various photos of boys posing provocatively and in some cases, covered in shaving cream.

Sutton would invite the boys over for Friday night drinks, making them feel special and luring them into something the impressionable children thought was innocent.

The former students have either never met or haven’t seen one another for decades. But they speak with one voice when asked why they’re telling their stories.

They speak of anger at having lives cut by abuse, split in time by what could have been and what was. There’s common threads of mistrust of authority, lost dreams and unachieved futures, broken relationships, drug abuse and even suicide attempts.

Now, they just want the school and particularly Sutton, to be held accountable.

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Ross Clarke-Jones - Big Wave Surfer