Private boarding school Dilworth’s bill for historic abuse climbs to $55m

Dilworth School in Auckland is expecting to pay out $55 million in redress for historic abuse suffered by its former students. Photo / Dean Purcell

Private boys’ boarding school Dilworth has revised upwards the number of former students entitled to redress for historic physical and sexual abuse, with the country’s richest school now expecting to pay out $55 million.

In 2023, after a series of prosecutions of former staff for sexual offending against students at the school over decades and the then-ongoing Royal Commission into Abuse in State Care, Dilworth established a redress process and budgeted $44m to be paid out to up to 250 survivors.

Accounts for the most recent year – to January 31, 2024 – show this provision has since increased by a further $11m.

Dilworth's accounts for the year to January 31, 2024, show provisions to provide redress to students who suffered abuse were increased by $11 million during the year.

The surge appears driven by an increase in the number of expected payouts. Dilworth had in 2023 expected a range of between 150 to 250 former students to be paid out, but a reassessment last year has seen this anticipated range narrow at the top end to between 225 and 250.

Payments are set by an independent panel and expected to typically not exceed $200,000 for each former student but with provision to increase to $300,000 for the “most exceptional cases of abuse”.

The 2024 accounts record $10.7m had been paid out in the prior year. A further $39.9m provision was expected to be settled and paid out during the course of this year.

A request to Dilworth from the Herald to interview board chairman Aaron Snodgrass about the provisioning and Dilworth’s finances was declined.

The Dilworth redress package is believed to be the largest non-government compensation provision made for child abuse in New Zealand’s history and is a key reference point for the Government as it mulls how to provide its own redress for survivors – possibly up to 200,000 – identified by the Royal Commission as having suffered historic abuse at the hands of the state.

The Dilworth redress package is believed to be the largest non-government compensation provision made for child abuse in New Zealand’s history. Photo / Dean Purcell

The 2024 accounts show another brutal year for Dilworth, with the ongoing cost of historic abuse and its fallout coupled with a downturn in the Auckland property market. The school and its trust board posted a second straight year of deficits, with an $82m loss last year that had followed a $63.3m loss the year before. Current net assets were said to stand at $1.04 billion.

The deficit appears to be being managed by the sale of investment properties. The 2024 accounts show in January 11 properties were listed for sale, with three under contract and the remainder expected to settle during the year, with a combined carrying value of $93m.

Dilworth is a private boys’ boarding school established in 1906 with a property bequest from Irish-born farmer James Dilworth that included hundreds of acres of what would later become large swathes of present-day Epsom and Remuera.

The school leveraged that real estate to build a billion-dollar property empire and provide full-ride scholarships for primary and secondary students and become New Zealand’s best-resourced private school.

Alarming evidence of child abuse at Dilworth began to emerge in the 1990s with the conviction of school chaplain Peter Taylor for sexual abuse. This turned into a horrific geyser after New Zealand Police launched Operation Beverly in 2019, which has so far involved charges and convictions entered against nearly a dozen former staff.

In response, the school set up its redress programme and also appointed former judge Dame Silvia Cartwright and Frances Joychild KC to conduct an inquiry into abuse at Dilworth.

The Cartwright and Joychild report, published in September 2023, chronicled decades of institutionalised abuse and a culture that enabled and covered up offending.

The report concluded at least 233 students had been victimised – around 5% of the 4693 students who attended between 1950-2023 – and noted a couple of dozen old boys had since committed suicide.

Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism - including twice being named Reporter of the Year - and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.