AUSTRALIA
SBS
Source AAP
The Salvation Army wanted to know why the NSW department of child welfare had not let them handle a child sex abuse allegation against one of their officers instead of going to police, an inquiry has heard.
The chief executive of the NSW Department of Community Services, Maree Walk gave evidence at a public hearing of the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Sydney on Thursday.
Her evidence was based on a review of how the department supervised two Salvation Army homes in the 1970s – Bexley Boys’ Home in Sydney’s south and the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn.
Documents showed that in February 1974, a NSW welfare officer reported to police that the manager of the Gill home, who has been identified as X17, had indecently assaulted a boy.
Records also show a Salvation Army officer identified as Major X4 called the department “to raise the question of why the matter had not been handled by way of reference direct to the Salvation Army”.
The welfare officer at the time responded that the provision of the law required it be referred and wrote a memo saying “Major X4 was obviously disappointed in this attitude, but I am still of the opinion that was the correct course to take”.
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