By Fidelis Rego
ABC News
December 1, 2010
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/02/3082283.htm
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| Families of several victims launched legal action against the Catholic diocese of Toowoomba earlier this year. (www.sxc.hu: Mario Alberto Magallanes Trejo, file photo) |
Brisbane Catholic Education is defending its decision to re-employ a former school principal who was sacked for failing to report sexual abuse allegations.
The former principal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was in charge of a primary school at Toowoomba in southern Queensland when allegations of sexual assault surfaced about teacher Gerard Byrne.
Byrne is now serving ten years in jail for abusing 13 girls at the school.
Queensland Attorney-General Cameron Dick is appealing against the sentence.
Brisbane Catholic Education spokesman John Phelan says the former principal did report the allegations to his superiors, but not to police.
"What he's been employed to do on a casual basis in a school in Ipswich has been simply to work as a relief teacher or supply teacher when another teacher has been sick," he said.
"It's an entirely different situation from the role he held in Toowoomba."
'Out-of-court settlement'
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has reached an out-of-court settlement with five families whose children were abused at the Toowoomba primary school.
Earlier this year, the families of several victims launched legal action against the Catholic diocese of Toowoomba.
Five families have agreed to the compensation after mediation talks were held with former High Court judge Ian Callinan QC this week.
Their lawyer, Damian Scattini, says the compensation amounts will remain confidential but he has praised the church in its handling of the case.
The families of the five girls say they are relieved they have reached an out-of-court settlement with the church.
Several other families are suing the church, claiming it failed to heed warnings about Byrnes's behaviour.
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