Content Warning: This article refers to sexual abuse.
Lane Cove local Tony Nolan has waited a long time to be able to have his day in court and read his victim impact statement outlining the pain and hurt caused by pedophile Allen Keith Huggins at Pallister House.
On Friday 18th October 2024, Allan Keith Huggins was found guilty and sentenced to 28 years in prison for sexual abuse offences. He will be eligible for parole in 2040 when he will be 93. Some of those instances of sexual abuse took place at Pallister House (located on the grounds of Greenwich Hospital).
District Court Judge Penelope Hock found the 77-year-old guilty of 36 offences of sexual abuse against teenage and pre-teenage victims.
Huggins has already served time in Western Australia for sexually abusing boys.
When handing down her sentence, Judge Hock said the Crown case against him was compelling.
Huggins showed no remorse and continues to deny the allegations and will not even admit to knowing some of the victims.
Huggins was born in the United Kingdom and moved to New South Wales.
During the 1970s he worked as a director of the Pallister Young People’s Unit and Special School.
15 year old Tony Nolan Enters Pallister House
This is where 15-year-old Tony Nolan met Huggins. Tony had recently discovered he had a very high IQ after years of being labelled as developmentally delayed.
It was a confusing time for Tony Nolan as he was grappling with being labelled as highly intelligent. Later, he would discover that he also had ADHD, dyslexia and Asperger’s.
It was not easy to be admitted to Pallister House he had two attend two interviews the second one with Professor Marie Bashir (a former NSW Governor).
Tony Nolan wrote the following on the Allen Keith Huggins Blog – a blog that was set up by survivors so they could tell their story:
“Pallister was a co-ed student body with 12 boarding students and 12 day students. All
students returned home to their families on weekends. There were two classes, the snr
class with year 10, 11 and 12, with a single teacher. There was the jnr class with years
7 to 9 with two schoolteachers. The staffing was something like; the director who
was also a therapist, another therapist, 6 to 8 youth workers, a school principal who
was also teacher, two teachers, a teacher assistant, office assistant, occupational
therapist, and horary chaplain. The school activities were usually in 2 or sometimes 3
groups, and we did our studies through the NSW Department of Education
correspondence school. The accommodation was 4 bedrooms; 2 two person bedrooms and 2 four person bedrooms. Boys on the eastern side and girls on the western side of
the building.
The Director of the PYP was Mr Allan Huggins, who was the head therapist, and was
personally involved in all aspects of the running of Pallister, from the selection of
patients, as well as controlling the operations and logistics of the PYP, and the
conditions and time tabling of counselling sessions.
I entered the program in the last semester of 1978 and left the program in mid 1979.”
From the first day Tony started having counselling sessions with Huggins the sexual abuse started. This abuse would continue until Tony left the Pallister Young People’s Unit.
Huggins would move to Armidale and then he and his wife and children moved to West Australia. He would go on to work at Edith Cowan University.
Tony Nolan took the brave step of giving evidence at the Royal Commission on Child Abuse. He became the face of institutionalised sexual abuse and was featured in an article by the Sydney Morning Herald in September 2013 (read the article here).
A few days before his appearance at the Royal Commission, he was contacted by Detectives from the Child Abuse Squad in the Western Australian Police.
Mr Huggins had been reported to the Royal Commission and WA Police by other persons. When they executed a search warrant, they found the letter of complaint Tony had made to the Australian Counselling Association. Tony provided them with all the research he had conducted on Huggins.
Huggins was charged in 2013 over the assaults in Western Australia and a national hotline was set up to help find victims.
After he was released from jail in WA, he was extradited to NSW to face charges.
Tony Nolan’s Victim Impact Statement
Tony presented his victim impact statement 16 September 2024.
His victim impact statement is replicated in full below
“I am writing this statement after just visiting Pallister House in Greenwich. As a local I drive past it often. As someone with a genius level IQ, the curse that accompanies it is the ability to recall memories, and sensations as if they occurred yesterday.
I strongly remember leaving my all boys school and walking into a building of mixed students, who didn’t share the innocence and sheltered existence I had lived before I entered through that front door.
My mum often commented that when I had finished and left Pallister, my eyes had changed from showing trust, to being like a caged animal wanting to escape.
I learnt to be ashamed of my new school. In the Pallister school minibus, I once hid from my previous school classmates so they wouldn’t see me as we drove past them at the North Sydney swimming pool.
I still remember events and happenings, and the environment/culture that Mr Huggins allowed to exist.
My goal at that time of my life was to follow my uncle Fr Robert Nolan and become a Roman Catholic priest, having already a history of being an Altar Boy. That dream went out the window as did many relationships, which were fractured because I had shame and distrust of authority figures and government departments, because of what they failed to do, protect the young.
While I eventually was able to move forward, I still carried stigma off not being able to disclose all about my final years of school, and my loss of the innocent belief that those in authority had my best interests at heart.
I feel I am just as much a victim of the failed system of state government departments practices as I am of Mr Huggins medical / counselling practices.
Even up to today, my children have seen media articles on the internet, in my efforts to not only seek justice about Mr Huggins actions, but also to protect other children / persons from falling into the same situation I found myself in.
Even in more recent times, I felt shame when chatting to the then state governor Dr Maree Bashir, who was part of my Pallister enrolment process, to not remind her of that previous connection.
The same as I didn’t want to have Mr Huggins look at me in court, because the shame and disappointment of not living up to expectations of being one of his patients.
Even now, I find it distracting to recall and write this draft as it again impacts on my emotional well-being to write, innovate, and compute the data analysis for the many entities I voluntary help from day to day, and the focus on raising my children and supporting my friends and relatives.
Anthony Nolan”
Tony Wants To Raise Awareness
Tony approached ITC and asked us to tell his story as he wants others to know that they are not alone, and it is important to report any sexual abuse.
Tony has rebuilt his life, is he is married with two boys, and he was awarded an OM in 2021 for service to the communities of Lane Cove and Willoughby, particularly through the promotion of community safety and crime prevention.
Tony also received one of the first Lane Cove Local Hero awards and has also been awarded the Rotary Pride in workmanship award.
Since leaving and retiring from the NSW Police Force, Tony has been serving on several of his children’s schools and local council committees, doing volunteer activities like canteen duty, school sports, etc. Tony helps local businesses by supporting their web pages or data analytics on a volunteer basis.
This year Tony and his children were sponsored to stay and attend the World Autonomous Congress (WAC) in Mexico, which is an adult STEM conference of scientists, engineers, and information technology academics and professionals. WAC is supported by IEEE, NASA, and Aerospace, and reaches 60 countries around the world.
Anthony Nolan received an international Lifetime achievement award for “for outstanding contributions for data science, artificial life, astronomy, cognition, and intelligent decision sciences”
His keynote address was on Introducing Omniunify: A Construct Model for the Interconnection of everything!
Omniunify, an innovative and groundbreaking model that maps connections between all entities in the universe—whether physical, cognitive, metaphysical, or spiritual. Using knowledge constructs, deep fuzzy logic, and DCTNolanomics, it reveals how everything is intertwined in a dynamic system of cause and effect. Omniunify enables predictions and insights by treating each element—real or imagined—as an equally vital part of a vast interconnected network, offering a revolutionary approach to understanding the fabric of reality.
His two children also presented papers.
Tony is currently developing predictive tools like Fuzzy Moving Averages and Omniunify to try and help world government agencies address climate change and the forthcoming food supply crisis.
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Sexual assault support lines:
1800 Respect National Helpline: 1800 737 732
Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114
Victims of Crime Helpline: 1800 819 817
Full Stop Australia: 1800 385 578
