EXCLUSIVE: Yet another damning report has found former Liberal Party state leader and Melbourne Mayor, Robert Doyle, culpable for sexual harassment with calls now growing for the confirmed sleaze to lose the honorary awards and doctorates given to him, writes Gary Johnston.
Regular subscribers to True Crime News Weekly will be aware of the long-standing allegations of sexual assault which have continued to cling like a lech to ex Melbourne Lord Mayor, Liberal State Opposition leader and purported sleaze bucket Robert ‘Oily Doyley’ Doyle.
As we reported back in 2019, Doyle’s reputation as a sex predator dates back to his days between 1979 and 1982 when, as a tight pants wearing schoolmaster at prestigious Geelong College, he was first given the moniker ‘Oily’ and not because of any fondness for getting his hands dirty under the bonnets of cars.
Despite significant evidence that Doyle’s conduct at the school was questionable at best and notwithstanding a number of ex-students from the time who provided information to True Crime News Weekly on the understanding their anonymity would be protected, the now 67-year-old ostensibly retired politician, continues to evade the long arm of the law.
However, just in the past week, another of the many pieces of the sleazy Doyle jigsaw emerged when an enquiry ordered into misconduct allegations said to have taken place when he was chairman of Melbourne Health, published its findings, some three years after the initial investigation.
This enquiry led by Charles Scerri QC, issued a summary of its findings on March 26th concluding that conduct described by the complainant, the wife of a senior Melbourne medical figure, “did occur.”
According to the summary, Doyle’s behaviour ranged from “over-familiar, rude and obnoxious” comments to ‘inappropriate touching of the complainant’s inner thigh, close to her groin, and her lower back”.
The Scerri enquiry incidentally is separate to an earlier investigation by Melbourne City Council in 2018 which found that Mayor Doyle had sexually harassed two councillors and that the council, under Doyle’s aegis, was an unsafe workplace for women.
RELATED: ‘OILY DOYLEY’ GREASING UP JUSTICE! Is Robert Doyle Oiling the Wheels of Influence?
Former Melbourne City councillor, Tess Sullivan, who was one of the first to go public with their claims of sleazy behaviour by Doyle, told True Crime News Weekly this week it was shocking that the former mayor and one-time state Liberal Party leader was still holding onto honorary awards and doctorates from universities despite two separate official inquiries finding that sexual harassment was one of his common pastimes.
“Robert Doyle needs to lose his AC,” Ms Sullivan said.
“It’s unacceptable to have a Queens Honour when he has been found guilty by two separate government investigations of sexual harassment and indecent assault. And why does he get to keep his honorary doctorate in Law from Monash University? Monash Uni should withdraw his honorary doctorate.”
This pattern of behaviour will, of course, come as no surprise to the numerous women who were unlucky enough to cross paths with Doyle over the course of his career in education. And in fact, as we reported back in September 2018, Doyle himself laid out his agenda in a revealing article in Pegasus – the Geelong College School Magazine -way back in 1978, when he wrote, describing his motivation in applying for a post at the school:
“I knew, when I applied for this job, ‘there were girls there now’. To explore their influence would be a long essay; one of the impressions that has thankfully, receded completely, is of Geelong College without girls”.
Within a number of weeks, Schoolmaster Doyle became universally known as ‘Oily’ as he, presumably, committed himself to an extended period of female ‘exploration’.
Robert Doyle in his own words while a teacher in the 1970s (Image: Supplied)
Back then, as we reported, Geelong College acknowledged the concerns of students, both male and female, with first-hand experience of the early days of co-education and as part of their ‘ongoing support’ to past survivors, subsequently advised ex-student victims and witnesses to detail their concerns to The Geelong Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT), a multi-disciplinary Police unit.
Unsurprisingly, many of the survivors, now in middle age, were reluctant to revisit the traumatic days of their youth and in in June of last year, Victoria Police formally dropped the investigation, confirming that no charges would be laid against Robert Doyle, citing a lack of evidence.
Historical sexual offences are, needless to say, difficult to prove to the required standard of proof, given the paucity of forensic material due to time elapsed.
Victoria Police, however, say they will continue to support victims of sexual assault and have pledged a commitment to respond to any further information provided to them in relation to the matter.
Doyle of course, has denied any wrongdoing – well, he would, wouldn’t he? – and indeed has failed to respond to the recent publication of the aforementioned Scerri Report, citing ‘continued ill health’, a prognosis which somewhat confuses patrons of a well-known South Melbourne Hotel where Doyle is said to regularly prop up the bar of a lunchtime.
Rumours that he avoids the vinaigrette over his Kale and Feta Salad on the basis that he’s ‘oily enough’ are, so far, unconfirmed.
That “ice cream” photo? Can’t unsee that.