AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Monday 17 February 2014

The former principal of a Queensland primary school where a teacher sexually abused 13 girls has said he never reported any complaints to police or child protection officers.

Terence Hayes is appearing at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Brisbane.

The hearing is examining how Hayes, and the Catholic primary school he once ran, handled reports of child sex abuse by teacher Gerard Byrnes.

Hayes was a teacher for 26 years, and a principal for six years, before he first heard abuse complaints about Byrnes by schoolgirls in 2007.

The counsel assisting, Andrew Naylor, asked Hayes if he had ever made any mandatory reports under child protection procedures, policies or legislation since the first complaint in September 2007.

“No, I had not,” Hayes replied.