Townsville school told raped student’s parents to ‘leave it alone’, child abuse royal commission told

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Ben Millington

A north Queensland school principal allegedly discouraged the parents of a girl who was raped by four boys from reporting the matter to police, the child abuse royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into how Townsville’s Shalom Christian College handled the sexual assault of a 14-year-old female student known as CLF.

The girl’s parents gave evidence at a hearing in Sydney on Wednesday, and said the school’s principal at the time, Christopher Shirley, told them the boys involved were from influential Indigenous families in the area.

“At this point I got [Christopher] Shirley’s message, get over it and leave it alone,” said the girl’s mother.

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