Inquiry told SA disabled children abused

By Margaret Scheikowski
7 News
June 30, 2014

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/24348710/inquiry-told-sa-disabled-children-abused/

A bus driver's repeated sexual abuse of intellectually disabled children, many of whom could not speak or communicate in any way, was the focus of the Royal Commission's Adelaide hearing.

It investigated the response, such as it was, made by the South Australian police, St Ann's Special School and the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide to claims of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins.

From 1986 to 1991, Perkins was the school's bus driver, volunteered in woodwork classes and provided respite for parents by taking groups of boys on weekend camps and other excursions.

The then-principal didn't carry out a police check on Perkins, who had three child sex convictons.

He ended up molesting as many as 30 disabled children, but it was not until 1991 that police raided his home and seized two canisters of film later found to contain images of naked students.

The principal was told of abuse claims, but did not alert parents, the Archbishop or school board members.

Perkins was not arrested until September 1993, but later skipped bail.

Although police knew his whereabouts from 1998, he was not extradited back to SA until 2001.

He pleaded guilty to offences involving three students and was sentenced to 10 years' jail, where he died in 2009.

Only a small number of parents were told in 1991 that Perkins was suspected of abusing students, while others were not told until about a decade later.

Archbishop Philip Wilson agreed parents should have been told at the time, sparing them 10 years of not knowing or not having any explanation for their children's behaviour.

The church made "gift payments" totalling $2.3 million to 28 families in 2003.

WITNESSES

Only one victim - LH now aged 38 - gave evidence, saying he became so angry at being repeatedly sexually abused by Brian Perkins that he put a knife to the man's face.

"I wanted to kill him, I wanted to die," he said.

The mother of a Down Syndrome student said she had not known why her son changed, but he even began to distrust Santa Claus whom he previously loved.

Detective Sergeant Leonid Mosheev said budgetary restraints were part of the reason why Perkins was not extradited back to South Australia for years after he skipped bail.

The then principal Claude Hamam admitted he did not carry out a police check on Perkins. When told of abuse claims by police in 1991, he did not pass them on to the Archbishop or to school board.

Allan Dooley, senior Catholic education officer, told the commission "the abuse which occurred at St Ann's was shocking and appalling and the immediate handling of it in 1991 was unacceptable".

The Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson admitted the church's response to sexual abuse claims should have begun about a decade earlier than it did.