Child Abuse Still Happens in an Outdated Reporting System That Fails Young Victims

By Karen Healy
Courier Mail
February 19, 2014

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/child-abuse-still-happens-in-an-outdated-reporting-system-that-fails-young-victims/story-fnihsr9v-1226830942051

Staff at a Toowoomba school found it difficult to reconcile that teacher and church community member Gerard Byrnes (above) was a pedophile abusing stduents. Picture: Channel Nine Source: Supplied

FROM the outset of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, we were told to prepare ourselves to hear survivors’ experiences of child sexual abuse.

We expected to learn about the past, we were not prepared to hear that we are still failing our children.

On Monday we heard that, within the last decade, senior staff in a primary school failed to refer allegations of child sexual abuse to the police.

Many of us were puzzled by the school’s child protection officer’s comment to the commission that she did not understand why more of the children did not have the courage to come forward.

What did Catherine Long mean? Was it that the children lacked confidence in the system? Or was the children’s lack of “courage” to blame for the horror that unfolded?

Catherine Long, was a child protection officer at the Toowoomba school where child predator Gerard Byrnes styled himself as a “respected” teacher. Picture: Jack Tran Source: Supplied

Whatever was meant it is clear to me, on the evidence so far, that the initial response to the allegations was inadequate and may have contributed to the horror that unfolded.

As shocking as this news was, it was perhaps the wake-up call we all needed because we heard on Monday that not only does child abuse continue to exist but that protocols for dealing with it are no guarantee for safeguarding young children.

We heard individuals failed. They have acknowledged that themselves but witness accounts of the matter so far reveal a great deal about why our systems fail children and what needs to be done to improve them.

A key question is: why did the principal, Terence Hayes, and the child protection officer fail to refer the initial allegations to the police?

Part of the answer lies in human psychology.

Research on decision-making has shown that once we have made up our minds about a person or a situation, we are usually slow to change our views.

Staff have told the commission they simply could not reconcile Gerard Byrnes, their colleague who was a teacher and church community member, with the image of a pedophile.

Make no mistake about it, many perpetrators of abuse are aware of this flaw in human perception and expend much effort on making themselves seem beyond reproach.

Indeed, it would seem from what witnesses so far have said in the hearings that the efforts of Byrnes paid off with his colleagues giving him the “benefit of the doubt” until the weight of evidence was such that they were forced to revise their initial impressions.

Media reports also indicate the initial complaints by the families divided the school community with some openly expressing disbelief that a man who worshipped with them could be guilty of such crimes.

Byrnes was very effective indeed at convincing others that he was “just like them” with the result that anyone who said otherwise was a threat not just to Byrnes but to the school community.

While we might understand why the children did not tell school staff, we are puzzled why they did not tell their parents.

The dynamics of abuse are such the targets are often confused about what is happening and terrified of what will happen if they tell.

Media reports of Byrnes’ trial indicate he effectively silenced his targets, telling them he would “get into trouble” if they “told”.

So what can we learn from this recent and very local tragedy? We learn first that child sexual abuse is still with us and that those responsible often go to great lengths to mislead peers and silence their targets.

We need also to understand how deeply traumatising the experience of the abuse is for the victims and also for communities of which those victims are a part.

There can be little doubt the actions of Gerard Byrnes, first in perpetrating sexual abuse and then in his attempts to cover the abuse, have rocked the foundations of the community in which it occurred.

As hard as it may be, we need also to understand why, as the commission has heard, the principal and child protection officer failed to immediately report the allegations to police.

At the heart of this problem is a lack of independence in the decision-making process about the management of the allegations.

Byrnes had expended considerable effort on presenting himself as someone he was not and, in this context, his peers appeared to be unable to think of him as a perpetrator of child abuse.

The result was the school’s child protection system failed several young children.

If we can take any learning from this terrible tragedy, it is that we need reporting systems that are independent of the often complex and emotionally charged relationships that exist among peers and communities.

Such independence is essential for achieving procedural fairness for both those alleging abuse and the subjects of those allegations.

This is a critical and necessary reform and something that the Royal Commission will no doubt consider and make recommendations about and institutions, if they wish to bolster their child protection protocols, will implement urgently.