St Ann's Ex-principal Admits "Judgment Error" in Saying Police Check Had Been Done for Paedophile Bus Driver
By Candice Marcus
A former Adelaide school principal has admitted wrongly telling an inquiry he had done a police check on a bus driver who later molested pupils. Reading a statement to the royal commission into child sexual abuse, Claude Hamam said he had made an "error of judgment" by telling an internal inquiry in 2001 that he had made the checks on Brian Perkins. The royal commission is examining how St Ann's Special School, the Catholic Church and South Australian police responded to allegations Perkins was sexually abusing intellectually disabled students. "I made a mistake. It was an error of judgment on my part. I did not in any way fabricate the truth," Mr Hamam said in a statement he read to the hearing before giving evidence. "I admitted in a subsequent interview with Catholic Education that I had not done a police check, and I was accused of lying. "This left me shocked and devastated as I had not intentionally lied but made a mistake. "I resigned from Catholic Education in 2003, after 21 years of dedicated service as a teacher and principal. "However in his letter of dismissal the director [of Catholic Education] Allan Dooley stated that I was not a fit and proper person. "To this day, those words have caused great anguish to me and my family. I am a fit and proper person and I'm here today to give evidence as a principal of St Ann's Special School between 1985 and 1996." Hamam questioned about hire of Perkins as bus driver Mr Hamam was questioned about the process he followed to appoint Perkins as the school bus driver. "At the interview he seemed to be suitable to the position in terms of being a bus driver who had actually done some bus driving in the past. He had a licence and seemed suitable to working in our school," the former principal said. "I can't recall now whether I checked his references or not." Counsel assisting the royal commission Sophie David asked Mr Hamam: Q: "But you agree in those circumstances you should've made a telephone call to check his references?" A: "Yes." Q: "And you now can't recall whether you did or not?" A: "I can't, no." Mr Hamam says he alone did the interview with Perkins, despite there being a requirement for interviews to be done by more than one person. Q: "You were aware of the procedure or what you needed to do to conduct a police clearance check weren't you?" A: "Well in those days it was really not something that I would have done or had in the past with regards to any other staff members." Q: "Was there any particular reason why you didn't do that?" A: "No there wasn't, no." The inquiry heard Mr Hamam had given detailed explanations during the internal interviews of how he conducted the police check before hiring Perkins, including which police station he called. But he later said he was mistaken, and had not conducted a police check. "It's something I've got to carry for the rest of my life. Once the words are made, they stay forever," he said. "I think in my own mind I felt that, as a principal, I ought to have made a police check and in terms of the particular dates, there was confusion in my own mind. "I felt I hadn't done something I should've done as a principal and it was difficult to then retract that and I thought, 'No I cannot continue with this, I need to admit that I had not made a police check'." Mr Hamam said he subsequently found out that police checks were not required in schools until 2004. Under cross-examination from the lawyer representing the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide, Jane Needham SC, Mr Hamam denied he had deliberately lied when he was interviewed in 2001 for the internal review, and in a police statement in 2002 when he said he had conducted a police check on Perkins. Ms Needham SC pressed Mr Hamam about his motivations. Q: "Were you trying to minimise your role and responsibility for the selection of Perkins as a bus driver?" A: "No, I wasn't." The inquiry also heard there was no requirement during 1986-1991, when Perkins was employed by the school, for any other staff member or teacher to be on the school bus. "At the time there was an element of trust that we had for all our staff so in hindsight... trying to relate to what I would have done today in terms of supervision, it was a difficult thing but at the time we never suspected anything," Mr Hamam said. The former principal of St Ann's told the inquiry police asked him to keep the allegations confidential. "The police also did say to me that, to protect the identity of the the children, to keep the matter confidential at that stage so as not to compromise the police investigation," he said. Another paedophile was brought onto school's grounds Mr Hamam says a teacher raised concerns with him about Perkins bringing another man onto the grounds of the school. "She felt he was perhaps a little creepy, or that she didn't like the look of this person," he said. That man later was found to be another paedophile Perkins associated with. Mr Hamam said he had told Perkins it was inappropriate for him to bring other men onto the school grounds, but said he never suspected Perkins was molesting children. He acknowledged there had been complaints from parents about the school bus often being late, but he thought technical faults with the bus were to blame for the delays. Mr Hamam says he never notified the child protection section of the school's governing body after he became aware of the abuse allegations in 1991. But he says he contacted a Catholic Education Office official, Michael Critchley, to tell him of the allegations. He says there was an understanding Mr Critchley would pass on the information to other management. The royal commission earlier heard from police about paedophilia investigations being formally shut down by assistant police commissioner Colin Watkins during the 1990s. Perkins was extradited from Queensland years later, tried and imprisoned and died in jail in 2009. The hearing continues.
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