An inquiry into child sexual abuse in Tasmanian public institutions will turn its focus to the island’s education system and examine a prior investigation that found perpetrators were being shielded.
The commission of inquiry, which is scrutinising how successive state governments have handled the abuse allegations, is holding its second week of public hearings in Hobart.
The inquiry was called in November 2020 after child sexual abuse allegations against nurse James Geoffrey Griffin and other state employees became public knowledge.
An independent investigation into the state’s education system, undertaken before the commission of inquiry was announced, found complaints by students in the 1970s, ‘80s and ’90s were routinely deflected or ignored.
Report authors, criminology professor Stephen Smallbone and law professor Tim McCormack will on Monday give evidence, as will the clinical lead of Tasmania’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
The report found alleged or known sexual abusers were shielded and “concerns, complaints and ineffectual responses literally piled up”.
“We saw many examples of parents and others, including teachers and principals, actively but ultimately unsuccessfully opposing the decisions of (the education department) to transfer known abusers to a new school,” it read.
Only the findings and recommendations of the inquiry were released by the government due to various legal impediments.
All twenty recommendations, including better student safeguarding policies and record-keeping, were adopted.
The commission of inquiry last week heard from one mother who said her concerns about how Griffin inappropriately touched her daughter at the Launceston General Hospital were “shrugged off”.
Griffin died by suicide in late 2019 after being charged with sexually abusing children.
The inquiry will hold six weeks of public hearings and deliver a final report by May 2023.
