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	Alleged Abuse 'Monstrous', Says Weatherill By Tim Dornin Sydney Morning Herald September 27, 2011 http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/alleged-abuse-monstrous-says-weatherill-20110927-1kvap.html The alleged sexual assault of disabled children at an Adelaide state school was "monstrous", incoming South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill says. Mr Weatherill told state parliament on Tuesday of his meeting with parents of children who were allegedly abused by a bus driver at the government school between January and August last year. A 56-year-old driver is due to appear in court next week charged with a range of offences including two counts of sexual intercourse with a person under 14 and gross indecency against other children. But parents were angered last month when police also moved to drop three counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of assault. "The first thing I said at the meeting was to express my deep sorrow at the fact that, as a government, we weren't able to protect these children," Mr Weatherill, currently the education minister who takes over as premier next month, told parliament. "It's monstrous to imagine that these children were preyed upon by a driver who was in a relationship of trust with them. "I was appalled by that and the distress of the parents was obvious. "They were upset and angry that it appeared the perpetrator might escape justice." The case involving the government school has parallels with the abuse of 36 intellectually disabled children by another bus driver at a Catholic School, also in Adelaide. Parents of those students believe there were attempts by the church to cover-up the offending of Brian Perkins who worked at St Ann's Special School between 1986 and 1991. He wasn't jailed until 2003 after being extradited from Queensland and died in prison as he served a 10-year sentence. The church conducted an inquiry into its handling of the case which found it failed to conduct a background check on Perkins, who had previous sex offences, and that the church and its agencies had also failed to properly exercise their duties in other areas. This week the church also was forced to defend legal advice it received at the time that it not mention the sexual offences in a letter to Perkins terminating his employment. Adelaide's Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson said he did not believe that the advice was evidence of a cover-up - just confusion about how to deal with the problem.
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