AUSTRALIA
ABC News
A number of failings by St Ann’s Special School, the police and Catholic Church have been found by an inquiry examining the sexual abuse of a number of intellectually disabled students.
About 30 students were sexually abused by bus driver Brian Perkins in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
But it was not until 2003 that he was convicted of abusing three children.
The abuse often went unreported because most of his victims could not speak.
Perkins took children with intellectual and communication disabilities to and from school each day unsupervised from 1986 to 1991.
He also undertook volunteer work and provided respite care for students during his employment.
The commission found a lack of requirements by the school and the Catholic Education Office surrounding police checks on employees enabled Perkins’ employment.
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