Fmr principal admits gross incompetence in handling child abuse case

AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the latest from to the Child Abuse Royal Commission.

Today the former principal of a Toowoomba primary school admitted he was grossly incompetent for not reporting allegations of sexual abuse by one of his teachers to the police.

Terry Hayes was the head of the school when 13 girls were sexually abused by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes in 2007 and 2008.

Stephanie Smail is covering the Royal Commission in Brisbane and joins us now.

So Stephanie how did this former principal come to make this admission this morning?

STEPHANIE SMAIL: Good morning Eleanor. Terry Hayes has been questioned again about a meeting he had with the girl and her father in September 2007. The commission has heard the girl told Mr Hayes, her father and another staff member that her teacher Gerard Byrnes put his hands down her shirt and up her skirt but the former principal has told the inquiry he didn’t tell his superiors at the Catholic Education Office all of that information.

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