Toowoomba school community split over abused 13, royal commission hears

By Sarah Elks
Australian
February 17, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/toowoomba-school-community-split-over-abused-13-royal-commission-hears/story-fngburq5-1226829359071

A TEACHER at a Toowoomba Catholic school where 13 pre-teen students were sexually assaulted or raped by their classroom teacher says she doesn’t “get” why the victims didn’t have the “courage” to complain.

Catherine Long was a student protection officer and learning support teacher in 2007 and 2008 at the Toowoomba Catholic primary school when Gerard Vincent Byrnes abused the girls, aged eight to ten.

Ms Long gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Brisbane today. She and principal Terence Hayes listened in September 2007 as one of Byrnes’ students and her father told them Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt.

Neither Mr Hayes nor Ms Long reported the matter to police, and other children were abused in the complaint’s wake. The allegations only went to the local Catholic Education Office, which did not take the matter further.

Ms Long said Mr Hayes had been “in charge” of the situation. She said she knew he was not going to report the matter to police and did not believe it was her “duty” to do so either.

She said it was possible her Catholic beliefs “clouded” her judgment, in that she didn’t want to believe the worst in people.

“I think we were trying to look after the children, but we were also trying to be mindful of staff as well,” Ms Long told the Commission.

“My mind didn’t go to ‘you’re a pedophile’. My mind went to, the man in front of me, I don’t get that... I don’t believe that the person I worked with, that I was with, would do the things he did in a context of a day where everyone was around and nobody saw it.

“And I don’t get that our children, with all of this student protection and everything else that we had, didn’t have the courage to come forward (to the people) they knew and trusted, supposedly.

“They couldn’t talk to their parents, you heard from mums today, they still hadn’t spoken up, why?

“What is it that’s caused this? That’s stopped these kids speaking out?”

Ms Long said her two years of training as a student protection officer was not sufficient. Ms Long is no longer in that position but she is still a teacher at the school.

Earlier, the mother of a girl abused by her primary school teacher seven years ago has described the Catholic Church’s handling of the case as “terrible”.

A woman with the pseudonym KR this morning gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is holding public hearings in Brisbane for the first time.

It is investigating the handling of a veteran primary school teacher’s abuse of 13 of his students _ aged eight to ten _ in 2007 and 2008 at a Catholic school in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

The commission was told most of the abuse could have been prevented when one girl, known to the court as KH, complained to her principal that the teacher, Gerard Vincent Byrnes, had put his hand down her shirt, and up her skirt, in 2007. The principal failed to report the matter to police, and when he told Catholic Education officials of the allegation, was told to simply raise it with Byrnes, who denied any wrongdoing.

It was not until 2008, when another student and her parents took allegations of abuse directly to police, that Byrnes was arrested. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ jail after pleading guilty to 44 sex abuse charges, including ten charges of rape, involving 13 girls.

Most of the abuse incidents occurred in the classroom during class time in front of other students.

Today, KR, a nurse, told the Royal Commission that in 2007 her daughter, then aged 10 and 11, changed dramatically.

Her “healthy golden complexion” paled, she looked anaemic, her eyes dulled, she had bad dreams, stomach pains and sometimes stripped off her uniform as soon as she came home from school, choosing to walk around naked.

KR said her daughter, KE, became introverted and withdrawn.

At one point, her older daughter noticed KE was bleeding from her vagina. KE told her mother she had fallen while trying to land a cartwheel.

A few weeks later, police contacted KR and told her Byrnes had been taken into custody after another girl reported he had assaulted her.

KR said KE told her: “What can they (the police) do? KH’s parents have already spoken to (the principal) and no one did anything, so what can the police do?”

KE spoke to the police on two occasions. Byrnes was later sentenced.

KR was tearful as she described her daughter’s distress in the wake of the molestation.

She said she described being “so scared she couldn’t do anything” during the abuse, and now wore baggy clothes and preferred to spend time in her bedroom. KE finds it hard to trust new people and to socialise, particularly in social situations with members of the opposite sex.

KR said the Catholic Education office in Toowoomba handled the situation “terribly”. She said parents mobilised behind the principal and the parents of abuse victims were made to feel like “the bad guys”.

“They were even wearing red ribbons (in support of the principal),” KR told the Commission of the principal’s court appearance. The principal was charged but not convicted of failing to uphold mandatory reporting laws.

She said the school did not inform teachers which students had been the victims of abuse, so they were not properly supported, and neither were the victims’ siblings.

Senior counsel assisting the Royal Commission Gail Furness SC said the abuse impacts were wide-ranging and the abuse itself could have been prevented.

“The girls and their families have been adversely affected by the abuse,” Ms Furness said.

“Some have experienced difficulty forming and maintaining trusting relationships, including with family members. Some have been less attentive at school and suffered academically.”

“For some, the impact has been quite profound and long-lasting.”

“It is likely that many of the offences and the resulting impact felt by the girls and their families could have been prevented.”

Ms Furness said staff at the Toowoomba school and the local Catholic Education office were first informed of abuse allegations against Byrnes in September 2007, “some 14 months before police became aware of Byrnes’ offending and arrested him”.

The hearing continues.