AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has published the ‘Report of Case Study No. 6: The response of a primary school and the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office to the conduct of Gerard Byrnes.’
On 4 October 2010, Gerard Vincent Byrnes was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, including a non-parole period of eight years, after he pleaded guilty to 44 child sexual abuse offences against 13 girls who were then aged between eight and 10 years. Mr Byrnes was a teacher and the girls he offended against were all students in his classes.
This report examines the response by the principal and other members of staff of a Catholic primary school in Toowoomba, Queensland, to allegations of child sexual abuse made against Mr Byrnes. It also looked at the response by officers of the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Toowoomba (TCEO), to information supplied by the primary school principal regarding the allegations.
Toowoomba school
The Commissioners found that school Principal Terence Hayes did not comply with the procedures in the school’s applicable student protection kit in that he did not report the allegations of sexual abuse KQ made during the telephone conversation on 3 September 2007 and the meeting on 6 September 2007 to the police. The Commissioners found that Mr Hayes sought to avoid responsibility for reporting to the police these allegations of sexual abuse by maintaining the responsibility to do so was that of the TCEO.
Mr Hayes spoke to TCEO Senior Education Officers Christopher Fry and Ian Hunter but did not inform them that KH had alleged that Mr Byrnes had ‘put his hand up our skirts’. He did not inform Mr Fry and Mr Hunter that he suspected that Mr Byrnes had sexually abused KH.
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