Sex Abuse Royal Commission: Adults Who Molest Children "Often Popular Members of Community"

By Nicole Chettle
ABC News
March 29, 2017

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-29/royal-commission-child-abusers-are-not-stereotypical-predators/8398420

Adults who are child molesters are often popular members of the community, and do not behave like predatory monsters, a royal commission has heard.

Experts told the final public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney that inaccurate stereotypes were hindering child protection.

Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden, from the University of Belfast, appeared via video link and said child molesters were often respected and well-liked individuals.

"That's one of the things that abusers will often strive to do," she said.

"To generate this perception that 'I am a nice person who's exceptionally kind to children', which then feeds into the popularity with other staff or parents and makes people less likely to challenge them."

Katherine Levi, the chief executive officer of the training organisation Child Wise, said Australia was too dependent on working-with-children checks.

"Often I'll speak to an organisation and they'll say 'Yep, we're child-safe ... we do working-with-children checks. And we make sure our employees have clear criminal histories'," she said.

She said even people with working-with-children checks could commit crimes.

Popular teachers can groom children

Ms Levi said two years ago her organisation came across a teacher who was popular with children, but was also sexually grooming them.

"He [the teacher] was popular. He was a musician. He was considered cool," she said.

"He was promoted to head of department ... and was really well liked by everyone, his colleagues as well as the children."

But after staff received training with Child Wise, they approached former students and confirmed the same teacher was sexually grooming children.

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Ms Levi said the now-adult former students "didn't want him to lose his job because he was a good teacher and he was a nice person — at the same time admitting he'd been engaged in grooming behaviour and sexualising behaviour with children".

"They were still concerned about him," she said.

Ms Levi said the man was dismissed but not charged, and the matter debunked the stereotype of abusers being someone who was not likable, trustworthy or popular.

Maria Radojevic is a grieving mother whose son died in 2014. She told the commission he was abused in a Christian school.

"We did not know it was happening right under our nose," she said.

"We believed that the school was a cocoon, like our home ... we had grown to trust the school as much as our son had, and to this extent we had become entrapped."

The 57th and final public hearing of the four-year-long royal commission will finish tomorrow.