AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph

Former St Ann’s school principal who hired paedophile Brian Perkins ‘made mistake’ over police check

SALLY BROOKS AT THE INQUIRY THE ADVERTISER MARCH 21, 2014

A FORMER school principal who employed paedophile bus driver Brian Perkins at St Ann’s Special School more than two decades ago has denied he lied about doing a police check on Perkins, but instead says he made a mistake.

Claude Hamam has told an inquiry into the handling of sexual abuse claims at the school that he deeply regrets stating that he did do a police check, at his first interview with the Catholic Education Office in 2001.

“I made a mistake. It was an error of judgment on my part. I did not in any way fabricate the truth,” he said.

“I admitted at a subsequent interview with Catholic Education that I had not done a police check and I…