Christians Fail on Abuse Checks

By Dan Box
The Australian
September 19, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/christians-fail-on-abuse-checks/story-fngburq5-1226722371489

HUNDREDS of Christian groups and organisations in NSW have not conducted background checks on church leaders working with children, despite legislation requiring them to do so being in place for 15 years.

Evidence tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse shows almost half the 700 religious organisations surveyed were found not to have registered for the Working With Children Checks, as required by laws introduced in 1998.

"Religious organisations came to attention following evidence that, in some cases, the WWCC obligations were not being met," the July 2013 report from the NSW Children's Guardian states.

Overwhelmingly, those found to be not complying with the scheme were from the Baptist, Catholic and other Christian churches, the report said.

The true number of those not conducting the child safety checks could be even higher, as most of the roughly 4000 religious groups in NSW were not included in the audit.

"Probably the major issue for organisations . . . was that appropriate governance arrangements were either not in place or given little attention," because of a lack of resources "as well as an expectation or perception that someone else did it".

Giving evidence to the commission yesterday, the Children's Guardian, Kerryn Boland, said the system of checks, which assess an individual's history of reported inappropriate behaviour with children, recently had been overhauled.

These reforms followed a number of failings in the legislation, the commission heard, including one case where a pedophile successfully applied for a teenage boy to live with him despite a finding that the man posed a risk to children.

The man, Steven Larkins, was employed at the time as chief executive of the Hunter Aboriginal Children's Service, with court-appointed parental responsibility for some of the most vulnerable children in NSW.

A 2003 Working With Children Check conducted by the state government suggested Larkins posed a "medium risk" but this finding was mistakenly sent confidentially to Larkins himself, who was subsequently able to continue in his position.

In 2011, the commission heard, an assessment of the children's service carried out by Ms Boland's office found Larkins had arranged for a teenage boy to live with him at home.

"There was no documentation as to why the decision was made," Ms Boland said.

Ian Eggins, a caseworker with Hunter Aboriginal Children's Service at the time, told the commission he witnessed Larkins "grooming" the boy over several years. "Steven would attend school appointments . . . they would go tenpin bowling."

The caseworker said: "(The teenager) stated that Mr Larkins was like a father figure to him, that he had been the only kind of role model in his life."

Larkins was jailed last year for indecently assaulting two other boys, as well as possessing child abuse material.

The hearing continues.