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The Dilworth Trust Board is expected to apologise to the school community at a March 1 event after decades of abuse. 

The event is planned to be a private one where the board will acknowledge the impact of abuse on survivors and the broader community. 

A webpage on the Dilworth Response website said the trust board will formally acknowledge and apologise to its community for the abuse that occurred. 

“It is a private occasion for survivors of abuse, their families and whānau, and other members of the Dilworth community.” 

The webpage said the purpose of the apology was to acknowledge and take accountability for decisions, actions and failures that led to several decades of abuse at Dilworth School and the harm it caused. 

For years, abuse was covered up at Dilworth and at times a child abuse ring operated, such as the one in the early 1980s involving the now-imprisoned Wayne Gillman Moonie and also allegedly involving the late Dilworth scout volunteer Richard Galloway and the late Ken Wilson. 

Multiple child molesters from Dilworth have been jailed since the police revealed the existence of the Operation Beverly investigation in 2020. 

“The Dilworth Trust Board of today will give the apology, taking ownership for the failings of the School’s leadership and governance of the past,” the Dilworth Response page added. 

The page added: “The acknowledgement and apology is being offered in the hope that it will contribute to the healing of survivors, Old Boys and our wider community, and reconciliation within the Dilworth community.” 

The page said the Dilworth Independent Inquiry Report was a strong starting point to inform the apology event. 

It said further insights were gained through personal apology requests made by survivors through the independent Dilworth Redress Programme, research conducted by research company IPSOS with the Old Boy community, and a hui in November. 

It said survivors, Dilworth Old Boys’ Association council members, Dilworth Trustees and senior leaders attended that meeting. 

It said a survey sought feedback and input from the wider Dilworth community about what the apology should cover and when and how it should be delivered. 

“The main themes arising from responses about the apology were that it should address the abuse that was allowed to happen, the harm it caused, the long-term impact on survivors’ lives, mental health and emotional wellbeing,” the page added. 

“There were consistent comments about the need to address the betrayal of trust, the silencing of boys, their families and staff, and fostering a culture of silence. 

“Respondents wanted an expression of accountability and remorse for what the school’s former leadership had allowed to happen.” 

The Herald last year revealed Dilworth School set aside $43.7 million for redress to people believed to have suffered serious physical and sexual harm during their time as students.