Gerard Byrnes child sex abuse...

Courier Mail
February 22, 2014

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/gerard-byrnes-child-sex-abuse-principal-backed-despite-inaction-victims-family-tell-of-impact/story-fnihsrf2-1226834331182

Denis Anthonisz, principal of St Eugene College at Burpengary where former Toowoomba principal Terence Hayes now works as a teacher.

Former principal Terence Hayes outside this week’s commission.

A BRISBANE principal insists his colleague “followed the process of the Catholic Education Office”, despite failing to call police and report allegations of sexual abuse.

The principal of St Eugene Catholic College in Burpengary — where former Toowoomba principal Terence Hayes now works as a teacher — has launched a robust defence of his colleague in a letter to parents.

Mr Hayes has faced scrutiny this week in the royal commission into sexual abuse over his failure to report allegations to police made to him when principal at a Toowoomba school.

The royal commission has heard evidence Mr Hayes was required to call police over the allegations, and his decision to simply report to the Catholic Education Office did not meet protocol.

But St Eugene principal Denis Anthonisz came to Mr Hayes’ defence in a letter to parents on Wednesday, claiming his colleague followed correct procedure and asking parents to keep him in their prayers.

“Terry was tried in a civil court for failing to comply with mandatory reporting of sexual abuse and found not guilty,” the letter reads.

“He followed the process of the Catholic Education Office in his diocese in reporting the incident brought to his attention by a parent.”

The letter said Mr Hayes won his position at St Eugene on merit following a rigorous interview process, and that he has “proved to be an excellent teacher much loved by the students in his care, their parents and our staff”.

The note is dated February 19 — the same day a document was presented in the royal commission noting the requirement to report abuse to police.

When contacted by <i>The Courier-Mail</i>, Mr Anthonisz was unavailable for comment, and inquiries were referred to Catholic Education Brisbane.

Brisbane Catholic Education communications manager John Phelan said he had seen the letter, which contained the personal view of Mr Anthonisz.

“The letter that you’re talking about contains the principal’s view of what Mr Hayes’ position has been,” he said.

He said Brisbane Catholic Education had no view on the content of the letter, and referred questions on protocol to Toowoomba’s Catholic Education office, who then referred questions to the Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

Mr Phelan said the organisation was “ monitoring” the proceedings of the royal commission, but no action would be taken on Mr Hayes or his employment until its findings were presented.

A PARENT OF A VICTIM OF GERARD BYRNES TELLS THE COURIER-MAIL, IN HER OWN WORDS, WHAT HIS ATTACK ON HER DAUGHTER HAS DONE TO HER FAMILY:

AT THE time Byrnes was sentenced and put in jail our daughter expressed such relief to us.

Even though Byrnes was in custody (which we explained to her regularly), she still felt such extreme fear that he was going to get her and or hurt our family.

As of the present time, she is becoming more nervous, anxious and terrified that he will be out of jail soon.

Every time we went to court, whether it was the Byrnes hearing or the (former headmaster Terence Hayes who went to trial and was acquitted for failing to report the Byrnes’ crime) Hayes hearing, anything to do with her abuse, we would sit her down and explain what had happened and what it meant.

She tells me how frightened she is of Brynes’s release.

She says to me:

“Mummy I know I shouldn’t say this but I wish someone would get to him in jail and then our lives would be so much easier.

“But then again I wouldn’t wish anyone to get murdered either, I’m just so scared that he knows I’m one of the victims and he’s going to do it again.”

My heart breaks yet again for her and all the other girls and families.

Our daughter has suffered from anxiety, poor self-esteem, migraines triggered by stress, nightmares and sleeplessness.

She struggles when stressed, cries and gets so overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to deal with it.

It makes us so angry and upset she is like this now and not the happy go lucky bubbly innocent girl she was.

We have ongoing anger because (former staff members at the school) we suspect didn’t protect our child.

We can’t understand how they could all knowingly allow the sexual abuse to continue.

Every time our daughter struggles with life because of the abuse, we get angry.

To be able to understand how grossly inadequate the sentence was, you need to know how the charges are decided.

This is my understanding and is only an example.

If a child is abused ten times a month for a year you would think that would be 120 charges.

But no, the child needs to verify a date or event for each charge, so out of those 120 times, you might be lucky to have three charges.

When you think of Byrnes charges, the amount of times he abused each child is horrific.

He deserves nothing less than the death sentence.

It has been an extremely bad time for my husband.

Tough men don’t cry, right?

Having so much guilt and anger bottled up, severe depression was the result.

We are both still here for our children, so that’s what matters the most, still a family.