Detective Tells Inquiry Mistakes Made in St Ann's Investigation

ABC News
March 18, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-18/detective-tells-inquiry-mistakes-made-in-st-anns/5329650?section=sa

A South Australia police officer has admitted to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse that if he had checked for previous convictions or outstanding warrants for paedophile Brian Perkins he would have been arrested early in the investigation of the abuse of as many as 30 boys at the St Ann's Special School in the early 1990s. Detective Sargeant Leonid Mosheev also told the Commission it was absurd to suggest police had told the school not to tell parents of the abuse allegations.

MARK COLVIN: A South Australian police detective has admitted to the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse that mistakes in an investigation helped a paedophile bus driver named Brian Perkins avoid justice for several years.

The commission is investigating how Perkins was able to flee South Australia in 1993 after abusing as many as 30 intellectually disabled boys at the Adelaide Catholic Special School, St Ann's.

Most of the families didn't find out for more than a decade that their sons were most likely among Perkins' victims.

But officer Leonid Mosheev is adamant that police never told the Catholic school not to tell other parents of the abuse allegations.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: South Australian Police were first alerted to the possibility Brian Perkins may have been abusing at least one student at St Ann's Special School in August 1991.

The Royal Commission heard today that the mother of a 19-year-old female former student of the school had reported that Perkins had been paying the girl to take topless photos of her and had asked her to appear naked in photos with the witness known as LH, then an intellectually disabled teenager at the school.

But detective sergeant Leonid Mosheev told the commission today that he wasn't aware of those reports and was instead acting on an anonymous tip-off when he went to Perkins' home and found canisters of undeveloped film labelled with the names of two children from the school, a photographic studio, bunk beds and pornographic photos.

Perkins already had three child abuse convictions, but detective sargeant Mosheev said he hadn't checked those records before he went to Perkins' home.

Counsel assisting the commission, Sophie David, quizzed Detective Sergeant Mosheev about another reason Perkins should have been arrested the first time he was visited.

SOPHIE DAVID: There was an outstanding warrant for this man, wasn't there?

LEONID MOSHEEV: There was, yes.

SOPHIE DAVID: It was in relation to a driving offence.

LEONID MOSHEEV: Yes, it was.

SOPHIE DAVID: So, had you made those enquiries as to whether there were outstanding warrants, there was another basis to arrest him at that time?

LEONID MOSHEEV: Absolutely, I agree with you, yes.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Officer Mosheev seized the canisters of undeveloped film to have them developed. They proved to include photos of naked children, including St Ann's boy LH.

But the police didn't move to arrest Perkins for several days.

Sophie David put to detective sergeant Mosheev that the delay gave Perkins the opportunity to abscond.

SOPHIE DAVID: After the 21st of August, he knew, of course, that you had seized the photos, didn't he?

LEONID MOSHEEV: Yes, he did. Yes.

SOPHIE DAVID: He knew that you had seen his photographic lab?

LEONID MOSHEEV: Yes, yes he would have known exactly what we'd got and it gave him perfect opportunity to do what he did.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Perkins wasn't arrested for another two years.

One of the most significant issues for the commission to investigate is why the parents of more than 20 boys weren't told by the St Ann's school that there was a possibility their sons had been abused by Perkins. Most of them didn't find out until years later.

The commission has heard from parents that the Catholic Church told them not to discuss the abuse with other families because a police investigation was underway.

Leonid Mosheev was adamant today that police wouldn't have told the school or the church not to tell other families of the abuse allegations.

LEONID MOSHEEV: I think that's probably absurd. How do you establish other victims if this secrecy - it just doesn't make sense.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Detective sergeant Mosheev also gave evidence that he was furious when superior officers ordered that Operation Deny, targeting four paedophiles including Perkins, be shut down without explanation in 1993, after Perkins had been arrested.

LEONID MOSHEEV: We were told to finish off the file we had, finalise the matter and that was it. We would have needed a taskforce to even just help with the information possibly on LH, because there needed to be another taskforce established, and we should've had people to do that.

The instructions were from the commission officer, assistant commission of police; that's it.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Perkins fled to Queensland and wasn't brought before a court for a decade. He was then sentenced to 10 years jail for the abuse of three boys.

He died in jail in 2009.

Detective sergeant Leonid Mosheev will continue giving evidence tomorrow morning.

MARK COLVIN: Samantha Donovan.