Dozen girls abused after report lapse

By Sarah Elks
Australian
February 18, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/dozen-girls-abused-after-report-lapse/story-fngburq5-1226829767670#

A DOZEN schoolgirls may have been saved from sexual abuse at the hands of their classroom teacher if their principal or Catholic authorities immediately reported allegations to police.

Veteran schoolteacher and student protection officer Gerard Vincent Byrnes was arrested for molesting or raping 13 of his students, aged eight to 10, in November 2008, 14 months after one of his Grade 4 students complained to the principal, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard yesterday.

Holding public hearings in Brisbane for the first time, the commission was told principal Terence Hayes relayed the girl's complaint -- that Byrnes had touched her chest under her shirt and put his hands up her skirt -- only to the local Catholic Education Office. The police were not informed.

It was only when another girl told her mother in November 2008 that she had been abused by Byrnes that the police became involved, discovering Byrnes had raped and molested 13 girls in total, mostly at his classroom desk during class time.