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	Sacked Staff Acted in Good Faith over Sex Abuse Claims A CATHOLIC primary school principal and two senior Catholic Education Office staff who failed to report allegations of child sex abuse had "acted in good faith", the Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba said yesterday. By Margaret Wenham Courier Mail December 11, 2009 http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,26469388-3102,00.html AUSTRALIA -- Before announcing at a press conference his decision to sack the three men, Bishop William Morris said it remained his view there had been no attempt at a cover-up. "Based on the material available to me, the staff involved exercised very poor judgment and made a number of significant errors in the process," he said. "However, I do not believe they acted to wilfully or deliberately protect the alleged perpetrator. My internal investigations concluded that in responding to the information in September 2007 (provided by a parent of a nine-year-old child) the staff acted in good faith." Nonetheless, Bishop Morris said, the trio had failed to respond appropriately to the information "from documenting the concerns to actioning and responding to them". "They had an obligation to do everything necessary to ensure that the protection of the children in their care remained paramount and they failed in that duty," he said. The 60-year-old teacher at the centre of the allegations has since been charged with 12 counts of rape and 34 counts of indecent treatment of 13 children under 12. He was arrested in November 2008 after a complaint by another child made directly to police. In arriving at his decision to sack those involved, Bishop Morris said he had taken into account an admission by the principal, during the man's recent prosecution under child protection laws for failing to report the alleged abuse to police, that he did suspect sexual abuse had occurred. Bishop Morris said not only had the principal not conveyed this suspicion to the school's student protection officer or the two senior CEO staff involved, he had not removed the teacher from his position. The principal's conduct further compromised student safety by allowing the teacher's return to the school as a relief teacher, following his resignation in June 2008. Bishop Morris said the two CEO staff members failed to recognise the information was sufficient to trigger police reporting requirements. Bishop Morris told The Courier-Mail later he was at a loss to explain how the three had "formed the understanding it was a disciplinary matter (involving) inappropriate teaching practices, rather than sexual abuse". "That's part of the mystery of the whole thing - why these three men made such a serious error of judgment," he said. He said Catholic Education's procedures relating to alleged sex abuse in schools were the subject of an on-going review. Families of three of the victims have launched damages actions against the Catholic Church. The alleged perpetrator is understood to be due before the courts again next week.
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