AUSTRALIA
The Australian
[with video]
SARAH ELKS THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 17, 2014
A TEACHER at a Toowoomba Catholic school where 13 pre-teen students were sexually assaulted or raped by their classroom teacher says she doesn’t “get” why the victims didn’t have the “courage” to complain.
Catherine Long was a student protection officer and learning support teacher in 2007 and 2008 at the Toowoomba Catholic primary school when Gerard Vincent Byrnes abused the girls, aged eight to ten.
Ms Long gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Brisbane today. She and principal Terence Hayes listened in September 2007 as one of Byrnes’ students and her father told them Byrnes had put his hands up her skirt and inside her shirt.
Neither Mr Hayes nor Ms Long reported the matter to police, and other children were abused in the complaint’s wake. The allegations only went to the local Catholic Education Office, which did not take the matter further.
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