AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
4 June, 2015
The Royal Commission’s Report of Case Study no. 9 – the responses of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide and the South Australian Police to allegations of child sexual abuse at St Ann’s Special School, was released today.
The report found that a lack of requirements surrounding police checks on employees enabled a man previously convicted for sexual offences to work as a bus driver at a special school in Adelaide. This man later went on to sexually abuse children with intellectual disabilities.
St Ann’s Special School was established in 1975 and catered for 50 to 60 students with intellectual disabilities aged between five and 20 years.
In 1986 Brian Perkins was employed by the school as a bus driver. He took children with intellectual and communication disabilities to and from school each day unsupervised. He also undertook volunteer work and provided respite care for students during his employment.
A public hearing into the matter which was held in Adelaide in March 2014, examined the circumstances surrounding Mr Perkins employment and the monitoring, supervision and oversight of his activities at the school.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.