AUSTRALIA
7 News
AAP
MARGARET SCHEIKOWSKI
June 30, 2014
A bus driver’s repeated sexual abuse of intellectually disabled children, many of whom could not speak or communicate in any way, was the focus of the Royal Commission’s Adelaide hearing.
It investigated the response, such as it was, made by the South Australian police, St Ann’s Special School and the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide to claims of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins.
From 1986 to 1991, Perkins was the school’s bus driver, volunteered in woodwork classes and provided respite for parents by taking groups of boys on weekend camps and other excursions.
The then-principal didn’t carry out a police check on Perkins, who had three child sex convictons.
He ended up molesting as many as 30 disabled children, but it was not until 1991 that police raided his home and seized two canisters of film later found to contain images of naked students.
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