Adelaide Abuse Inquiry Hearing to Go Ahead

NEWS.com.au
February 21, 2014

http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/adelaide-abuse-inquiry-hearing-to-go-ahead/story-e6frfku9-1226833673021

CONCERN that a public hearing into an Adelaide special school where disabled children were sexually abused could prejudice civil proceedings is no reason to postpone the hearing, the royal commission into child sex abuse has said.

At a directions hearing in Sydney on Friday, the Catholic Church insurer expressed concerns about the "potential effect on civil matters" of the timing of the commission's hearing into child sexual abuse at St Ann's Special School in Adelaide in the late 1970s and early '80s.

The commission has scheduled a hearing for March 17 in Adelaide.

In a letter to the commission, Catholic Church Insurance Limited (CCI) said it wished to state "unambiguously that it had no objection" to the commission's review of the St Ann's matters.

The letter sent on behalf of CCI by Kate Harrison of law firm Gilbert and Tobin, said it anticipated the commission's investigations would potentially traverse a number of the same issues of fact.

In the letter, Ms Harrison says if the commission investigation occurs before civil actions are heard, the plaintiffs in the civil actions could plan their case with the benefit of knowing the evidence produced at the commission.

Justice Peter McClellan, chair of the commission, said on Friday while it was conceivable there might be some issues that might have to be quarantined, there was no reason for the hearing not to proceed as planned.

"When the defence that has been filed gives us no assistance whatsoever in how the claim of negligence is traversed then it is not possible in this point in time to make any judgment about whether or not there will be a problem."

A civil case by six parents of profoundly disabled children who were abused by a bus driver employed by St Ann's has been running for 12 years.

The hearing, which goes ahead as scheduled on March 17, will examine the circumstances in which bus driver Brian Perkins, who molested the children, was allowed to work at the school. Perkins was later jailed.

Among other matters the hearing will look at the basis of payment by the Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Adelaide to the parents of those alleged to have been sexually abused.

In 2003, the archdiocese paid $2.25 million in unconditional, ex-gratia payments to the families.

Six of the families then started legal proceedings against the school for negligence and the case has not yet been resolved.

One of the six parents, Peter Mitchell, has started an online petition requesting the Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson to intervene to speed up the civil proceedings.