By Peter Hardwick
The Chronicle
August 5, 2009
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2009/08/05/principal-faces-trial-in-sex-case/
THE Toowoomba Catholic primary school principal accused of covering up a girl's complaint that she had been sexually molested by a teacher is to stand trial on the matter.
The 49-year-old man, who cannot be named, was suspended on full pay in February when the cover-up allegations surfaced.
The charge is believed to be one of the first of its kind in Queensland.
Police claim he failed to report an alleged 60-year-old pedophile teacher at the school who a then nine-year-old girl student had accused of molesting her in September, 2007.
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| Lawyer Paul Jones (left) leaves court with a Catholic school principal charged with failing to report a sexual offence. |
The complainant girl later told police the same teacher had molested her a week after she made the initial complaint.
The accused pedophile teacher was charged in November last year with molesting the girl and has since been charged with a total of 12 counts of rape and 34 counts of indecent treatment of children under 12 relating to 13 different complainant girls at the school.
He has been remanded in custody, but has not yet been required to enter pleas to any of the charges.
Ironically, the accused pedophile had been the school's designated child safety officer at the time and the alleged incidents are claimed to have occurred in the classroom environment in 2007 and 2008.
He had retired from the school when he was arrested.
The suspended school principal has been charged with "failing to comply with obligation to report sexual abuse of a student under 18 years attending a non-state school", as the charge appeared on the court list yesterday.
He has not been required to enter any plea to the charge, but through his Brisbane-based solicitors Macrossan Lawyers he released a statement earlier this year maintaining his innocence.
Remanded on bail, he was not present in Toowoomba Magistrates Court yesterday when solicitor Luke Osborn, acting as town agent for Macrossan Lawyers, asked that the matter be set down for hearing.
Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist adjourned the matter for hearing in the same court on September 17.
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