A FORMER Adelaide principal who hired a pedophile says he did not lie but made a mistake when he initially said he had done a police check on the bus driver.
Claude Hamam also said the school was extremely vigilant about supervision, but he had not known children went to the woodwork shed at lunchtime to see the driver, Brian Perkins.
"At the time we had an element of trust that we had for all the staff there," he told the royal commission into sex abuse on Friday.
It is investigating St Ann's Special School and Perkins who sexually abused intellectually disabled children between 1986 and 1991.
Mr Hamam hired Perkins, who had three child abuse convictions, without doing a police check, could not recall if he verified his references, and interviewed him alone which breached catholic school policy.
He told the commission he deeply regretted telling the Catholic Education Office (CEO) in 2001 that he had carried out the check, before revealing in 2003 that he had not done so.
"It is something I have got to carry for the rest of my life," he said.
It had been a mistake and an error of judgment, so he was shocked and devastated to be accused of lying and to be dismissed on the grounds of not being a fit and proper person.
Mr Hamam agreed that as Perkins took on more school activities, he had greater opportunities to be alone with children but said "we were extremely vigilant".
Perkins did volunteer respite care of students on weekends and helped out in the woodwork shed.
Mr Hamam said he did not recall a mother telling him that Perkins had placed her daughter on his knee in the shed and tried to feel her breast.
If that happened, he said he would have informed police.
He did recall a teacher raising concerns about Perkins bringing another man - whom the commission heard was now a convicted pedophile - onto the school premises.
"She felt perhaps he was a little creepy and she didn't like the look of this person," Mr Hamam said.
He told the man he did not want him at the school, but he could not recall if he brought up the incident with Perkins or if it gave him concern about the driver.
He said he first found out about the abuse claims when police contacted him in 1991.
Mr Hamam said he told Michael Critchley, who worked in the CEO's resources section, and expected him to take the case further.
He denied only approaching Mr Critchley for help in terminating Perkins' employment, saying "I thought it was a much more serious matter than looking at an industrial issue".
He did not tell parents their children may have been abused as police told him to keep the matter confidential so as not to compromise their investigation.
He did not raise the allegations with the Archbishop or at school board meetings.
Mr Critchley testified that he did not inform anyone in the CEO of his conversation with Mr Hamam.
"I can't recall why I didn't do it," he said, but agreed that in retrospect he should have.
Perkins, jailed for 10 years in 2003 after pleading guilty to sex offences, died in prison in 2009.
The hearing is continuing.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Principal says school trusted staff
Dengan url
http://cucidollaran.blogspot.com/2014/03/principal-says-school-trusted-staff.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Principal says school trusted staff
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Principal says school trusted staff
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar