Abuse Inquiry Opens in Sydney

By Annette Blackwell
The Australian
September 15, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/abuse-inquiry-opens-in-sydney/story-fn3dxiwe-1226719397242

THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse opens in Sydney on Monday and will focus on how three NSW organisations handled allegations about a convicted pedophile.

Its first public hearing, at the commission offices in Governor Macquarie Tower, will shine the spotlight on branches of Scouts Australia, Hunter Aboriginal Children's Services and the NSW Department of Community Services.

They will be asked what they knew of allegations levelled at convicted pedophile Steve "Skip" Larkins.

The former chief executive of a Newcastle-based foster care agency for Aboriginal children was not revealed as a child sex offender until 2011 when police investigating child pornography claims uncovered sex abuse complaints from the 1990s.