AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today
ELEANOR HALL: The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse is holding its first public inquiry outside Sydney today, investigating a scandal that engulfed the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba just a few years ago.
The case involves the abuse of 13 primary school girls by their teacher, Gerard Byrnes, who pleaded guilty and is now serving a 10-year jail sentence.
The Commission is investigating how the school staff, including the principal, and Catholic Church officials in Queensland dealt with the allegations when they emerged in 2007.
The World Today’s Emily Bourke is at the inquiry in Brisbane and joins us now. Emily, how did the Royal Commission begin today’s inquiry?
EMILY BOURKE: Good afternoon, Eleanor. We’ve been hearing about how Gerard Byrnes, a teacher and the child protection contact person at the primary school in Toowoomba, was charged with 44 child sex offences several years ago, and those offences were committed between 2007 and 2008. All of the students were abused while sitting in Byrnes’ classes, and so he was arrested in 2008 after the first complaint was lodged in 2007.
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