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	Betrayal of Trust It Was a Mass That Celebrated a Sinner. Hundreds of Parents, Students and Fellow Staff at the Toowoomba Primary School Gathered to Pay Tribute to the Veteran Educator and "child Protection Officer" after More Than 40 Years of Serving the Catholic Church. By Michael McKenna Australian December 15, 2009 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/betrayal-of-trust/story-e6frg6z6-1225810365048 AUSTRALIA -- The well-liked and genial 60-year-old year 4 teacher had stunned the small devoted community with his sudden and unexplained resignation during the 2008 mid-year holidays. The principal wished the teacher well in the school newsletter ahead of the send-off -- replete with gifts and glowing testimonials -- worthy of an educator who, himself, had risen to head several schools, only to shun administration for the joys of the classroom. But as the principal shepherded students into the school's historic church, he was placing at its altar a secret that, for too long, has darkened the church. Before the congregation was a man the principal believed was sexually abusing students. RELATED COVERAGE Church vows to upgrade protection The Australian, 1 hour ago Sacked trio 'acted in good faith' Courier Mail, 4 days ago School abuse: three sacked The Australian, 4 days ago Boys' school teacher on sex charges Courier Mail, 5 days ago Parents sue church after alleged sex abuse The Australian, 5 days ago Four months later, the teacher -- rehired within weeks by the principal -- was arrested after a 10-year-old student went directly to police with her complaints of abuse. He was charged with 46 counts of rape and indecent treatment of a child under 12, involving 13 girls, confessed to some of the alleged abuse and is now awaiting court early next year. The teacher, principal and school cannot be legally named until he is dealt with by the district court. While the arrest shook the school community, it is the revelations about what was known by the principal and senior officials in Catholic Education -- and their apparent inaction -- that should have seismic significance to the foundations of the modern Catholic Church in Australia. It has exposed as empty the years of promises, new protocols and pronouncements from the church that it has learned the lessons from decades of scandal over the cover-up of child abuse within its institutions. Last week, Toowoomba bishop William Morris sacked the principal and two senior local Catholic Education officials, saying they had failed to protect the children of the diocese. "They had an obligation to do everything necessary to ensure that the protection of children in their care remained paramount," Morris said in a statement. "They failed in that duty." The principal this year became the first person in Australia, and among only a handful worldwide, to be charged under laws mandating the reporting to police of any suspicions of sexual abuse involving a child. Police launched the investigation into the school's handling of the case after a series of reports by The Australian revealed the principal had received complaints in September 2007 from parents of a nine-year-old child about her abuse. At the time there were also other complaints from staff about the teacher's behaviour, including his growing notoriety for enticing children to sit on his lap with the offer of lollies. The principal later admitted at his trial that it was then he "reasonably suspected" the teacher had sexually abused at least one child. But the allegations -- including the girl's claim he repeatedly put his hand up her and her classmates' skirts -- were kept secret from the police. Instead, the principal and two Catholic Education officials, prosecutors later alleged, "watered down" the complaints in a letter to the teacher, who dismissed everything as the lies of little girls. They took him at his word. During the next year, at least 12 other girls, some who naively tried at times to disguise themselves in the playground with hats to avoid the teacher's attention, allegedly suffered an onslaught of abuse. It stopped only when one child summoned the courage to tell her parents in November last year and they went to police. The teacher was arrested and was confessing within days to abusing six of the children. Court documents depict a deeply troubled man, with his court-appointed psychiatrist saying he showed no remorse and was emotionless about his alleged crimes. "In short, the defendant's reaction to his parlous circumstances is just not normal," consultant psychiatrist Ian Curtis said. "He is detached and isolated from any reaction that a normal professional in his circumstances would have to the disgraceful circumstances in which he finds himself." It seems he was oblivious of the dangers to the complaint of the first child and, even confident that despite it being aired with the principal and Catholic Education, nothing would ever come of it. Within weeks, according to police documents, he was back abusing the same girl who went to the principal. "The complainant child states about a week after telling her principal, the defendant started to touch her again for a week," police reported. She then left the school because her father was transferred to Brisbane. The father tells The Australian he is disgusted with the principal and always believed it was a matter for police. "I have a bit of guilt about all of this and going to the principal," he says. "But I thought someone was going to go the police, it wasn't like we're saying he stole some school stationery, it was a serious allegation. "If they had done what they were supposed to, then 12 other kids would not have been scarred for life." After the father rang the school about the abuse, the principal called him and the child in for a meeting and alerted his superiors at Catholic Education. He was instructed to tell the teacher and several days later the meeting was held with the father, child, principal and another teacher, who also served as the school's "child protection officer". At first the father outlined the allegations and then the child was brought in, with assurance that she would "not get into trouble" if she told the truth. The child protection officer took notes of the allegations and typed them up for the principal. During the next few days, the principal -- who refused to be interviewed by police -- drafted a letter, to confront the teacher, which he emailed to his Catholic Education superiors, Christopher Fry and Ian Hunter, with the comments "feel free to adjust/alter/change as appropriate". "After speaking with you and Ian on Friday [name], took a phone call from another parent regarding this matter . . . the context of this second parent's phone call was the concern of two girls gossiping over what is a serious matter," the principal wrote. In his trial, prosecutors allege that the subsequent changes -- negotiated between the principal and his two superiors -- amounted to a sanitisation of the allegations. The girl's central complaint that the teacher "puts his hands up our skirts when I go his desk" became "placing your hand on the upper leg" of the girl. The allegations the teacher put his hand inside her shirt and "rubs my chest" became "placing your hand around a girl and through the buttoned part of the sports uniform which made her uncomfortable". And in one of the drafts, the principal seems to have already decided that the teacher will remain at the school. "The reporting of the incidents follows a pattern that is worrying . . . it is your responsibility to amend your professional conduct so as to ensure any potential for further allegations do not surface," the principal wrote. Asked in court to explain why changes were made in the allegations, the principal couldn't say: "I can't answer that, sir." Prosecutor Mark MacKenzie then accused him of a "cover-up", to which the principal responded: "That is absolutely out of this world." One mother, whose child was named by the first student in that meeting as a fellow victim, was never contacted. In the documents, the school says the second child -- now subject to some of the charges -- was questioned about the abuse but refused to say anything. Her mother says she learned her daughter was questioned only in the middle of the trial of the principal. Even after the teacher was arrested, parents of the victims complained that there was a "lockdown" on the matter, with the principal denying that there had ever been any complaints. One parent tells The Australian that when asked at a meeting, the principal looked over at Fry, who nodded, before answering that "at no time did I have any suspicions against this teacher". Morris says he learned of the complaints only when the principal went to trial. Several parents of victims have also said that police involved in the investigation, who had links with the school, assured them that there had been no warning. One detective, who has children at the school, conducted the first interview with the alleged offender and with the parent who had made the first complaint to the principal. He was told of the earlier complaint, and school inaction, but it was only after it made was public in The Australian that police launched an investigation. In a statement this month, police denied they ignored the issue, saying that they were busy with the abuse investigation into the teacher but were still conducting "extensive consultation and extensive research" into the school's handling of the case. For many parents, it provides cold comfort after being "betrayed", as one father said, by everyone involved. Their isolation was evident in the Toowoomba Magistrate's Court several weeks ago, when the principal was acquitted. In a damning judgment, Toowoomba magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist ruled that while the principal had met his legal obligations by reporting the complaints to senior officers in Catholic Education it was clear someone at the school or diocese had "committed an offence" by their inaction. "Nowhere is there any indication or acknowledgment that the matter ultimately needs to be, and will be, passed on to police -- and it never was. "The failure of the Catholic Education office to pass on the report to police on this occasion is the very practice the government sought to eliminate by their amendment to the education act in 2003." More than 30 supporters of the principal, many of whom were parents of children at the school, cheered and clapped as other parents, whose daughters were abused, broke down. "How can these people act that way, be so insensitive when he [the principal] didn't do everything he could have to protect our babies?" one parent asked.
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