Church May Face Payout over Abuse, by Lacey Burley, Chronicle, December 9, 2009

Church May Face Payout over Abuse

By Lacey Burley
Chronicle
December 9, 2009

http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2009/12/09/church-may-face-payout-over-abuse/

AUSTRALIA -- THE Toowoomba Catholic primary school at the centre of a child sex abuse scandal could face a multi-million dollar civil lawsuit.

Shine Lawyers partner Simon Morrison, whose firm secured an $800,000 payout for a woman molested as a child at the Toowoomba Preparatory School, said the principal's not guilty verdict last week was only a technical win.

Simon Morrison

"It might be a technical win, but it still exposes the school and the diocese to civil litigation," Mr Morrison said.

The school's principal was charged with failing to report to police a student's complaint that she was sexually assaulted by a teacher.

He was cleared in a Toowoomba Magistrates Court hearing due to a technical issue involving who was responsible for reporting the matter to police.

Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist acquitted the teacher, but said it was clear a person at the school or Catholic Education had committed an offence.

The principal's two superiors within Catholic Education, Christopher Fry and Ian Hunter, cannot be prosecuted as the time limit for police action expired earlier this year.

The court heard the principal and his superiors knew of the sexual abuse allegations since September, 2007.

The allegations were kept secret for 14 months until another victim made a complaint directly to police in November last year.

The accused pedophile teacher remained at the school until July last year and allegedly continued to abuse students despite the fact the principal was aware of a student's complaint.

The accused teacher is charged with 12 counts of rape and 34 counts of indecent treatment of children.

Mr Morrison said the recent legislation was designed to prevent this crime of non-reporting from happening.

"The whole reason for this section's existence is that the minute the school knows there is a problem, they should be reporting it to police quickly so other children at school are not put at risk," he said.

"Sadly, kids have been failed in this instance."

Shine Lawyers acted for a 24-year-old woman in 2001 when she was awarded a landmark $834,800 payout after a trial which exposed the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane for covering up pedophile boarding master Kevin Guy's abuse of at least two girls at the school in 1990.

The court heard Guy sexually assaulted the complainant girl up to 30 times in a school common room where they would meet at night.

Complaints from students, parents and staff were ignored or not adequately investigated.

During the Toowoomba Catholic school principal's trial last week, it was noted that he and Catholic Education officials "watered down" the student's complaints.

Magistrate Stjernqvist has suggested changes to the mandatory reporting laws and sent them to the Chief Magistrate, Judge Brendan Butler.

The State Government and police are now considering changes to the reporting laws after the accused pedophile teacher is dealt with in Toowoomba District Court early next year.