Child sexual abuse commission moves to Queensland

By Eleanor Hall
ABC - World Today
February 17, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3946162.htm?site=brisbane

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is holding its first public inquiry outside Sydney today, investigating a scandal that engulfed the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba just a few years ago.

The case involves the abuse of 13 primary school girls by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes, who pleaded guilty and is now serving a 10-year jail sentence.

The Commission is investigating how the school staff, including the principal, and Catholic Church officials in Queensland dealt with the allegations when they emerged in 2007.

The World Today's Emily Bourke is at the inquiry in Brisbane and joins us now. Emily, how did the Royal Commission begin today's inquiry?

EMILY BOURKE: Good afternoon, Eleanor. We've been hearing about how Gerard Byrnes, a teacher and the child protection contact person at the primary school in Toowoomba, was charged with 44 child sex offences several years ago, and those offences were committed between 2007 and 2008. All of the students were abused while sitting in Byrnes' classes, and so he was arrested in 2008 after the first complaint was lodged in 2007.

Now Byrne isn't eligible for parole until November 2016, but the Royal Commission has been told that many of the girls who were abused were simply too scared to tell anyone. We've heard from parents this morning who've said that they feel very guilty about what happened, that they didn't feel they'd taken the matter seriously, that the school didn't take the complaint seriously, and they weren't told about their options to contact police, or indeed mandatory reporting policies.

Counsel assisting Gail Furness has described how the girls who've been abused have had terrible physical and psychological consequences. Here's a bit of what she had to say.

GAIL FURNESS: The girls and their families have been adversely affected by the abuse. Some have experienced difficulty informing and maintaining trusting relationships, including with family members. Some have been less attentive at school, and suffered academically.

For some of Byrnes' victims, the impact has been quite profound and long-lasting. It is likely that many of the offences and the resulting impact felt by the girls and their families could have been prevented. To date, more than $3 million has been paid in damages, costs and administration fees in relation to the offences committed against nine girls.

ELEANOR HALL: That's counsel assisting the Royal Commission Gail Furness. So Emily, what is the scope of this inquiry?

EMILY BOURKE: The Royal Commission is really trying to drill down into the policies and procedures that were in place at the primary school at the time of the abuse, and what we've been told today was that there was a risk management kit, and contained in that kit was advice that if anyone was in doubt about, or had a suspicion about anything, they must act in favour of acting on that allegation as soon as possible, and there was nothing to prevent the principal or other staff from reporting it to police.

And we know that in the aftermath of this there was a massive audit of classroom safety at the school; there was substantially revised policies and extra training; a full time child protection officer was hired.

Now, on paper, it would appear that there were policies in place, that there was training of staff, but staff believed that they needed a written complaint to refer the matter to police, and there was some doubts about how seriously they took the complaint.

Now, what we've also heard is that how… and the inquiry's looking at how and why this all happened; there was a raft of procedures, there was mandatory reporting, and yet the school hired and reemployed a teacher to whom there'd been a credible and serious allegation of abuse, and no action was taken.

ELEANOR HALL: Emily, the witness list has now been made public - who will be giving evidence?

EMILY BOURKE: Just as the parents of victims are currently giving evidence. We will hear from student protection officers at the school; the former principal at the school, Terrence Hays, who was sacked in the aftermath of all of this; a senior officer with the Catholic Education Office; and the former bishop of Toowoomba, William Morris, will also give evidence.