Intellectually disabled man speaks of abuse by bus driver at Royal Commission in SA

ABC News
March 17, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-17/intellectually-disabled-man-speaks-of-abuse-by-bus/5325970?section=sa

An intellectually disabled man has told the Royal Commission he was abused by a paedophile bus driver at his Catholic school in the early 1990s. The Commission is sitting in Adelaide for the first time to investigate how the Catholic Church and South Australian police handled the case of paedophile bus driver Brian Perkins, and how the victims and their families have been affected.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: The sexual abuse Royal Commission is holding its first hearings in Adelaide today to investigate how the Catholic Church and the South Australian Police handled the case of a paedophile bus driver.

This morning an intellectually disabled man set out how he was abused by the paedophile bus driver, Brian Perkins, at his Catholic school in the early 1990s.

Sam Donovan is at the hearing in Adelaide and joins us now.

Sam, what did this first witness tell the hearing about what happened to him?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well, it's been very disturbing evidence, Eleanor.

The significance of the evidence of the witness known as LH is that of the 30 or so boys who were abused by Brian Perkins at St Anne's School in the early 1990s, LH is pretty much the only one who has any power of speech. Most of the boys who were abused during those years were severely intellectually disabled and unable to describe what happened to them.