Complaints that went nowhere
A WET kiss. An inappropriate conversation with a group of girls about a nurse he called “titsy”, whom he wanted to “shag”. Two or more “deficient” reviews of a string of complaints. A transfer to a children’s detention centre in the midst of a scandal.
Before 2019, when serial child sexual abuser James Geoffrey Griffin was finally charged, not one staff member at the Launceston General Hospital was trained in how to identify child sexual abuse or grooming. Not one single person had oversight of child safety at the institution.
And there was no central repository where complaints of child abuse were handled.
On Tuesday, those “significant failings” that allowed child abuse and grooming to go unnoticed were admitted by the Department of Health human resources manager, James Bellinger.
Mr Bellinger admitted to the child sexual abuse commission
of inquiry that before 2019, there was no child sexual abuse and grooming training provided to staff.
He admitted the hospital’s incident reporting system, SLRS, was not designed to capture child abuse and grooming behaviours.
“Is it fair to say it took Griffin’s offending to put this on people’s radar?” Elizabeth Bennett SC, counsel assisting the commission, asked.
“Yes,” Mr Bellinger answered.
He agreed the three pathways of reporting complaints did “not end up in a central repository”, not one single person had oversight of them, and no person who handled the complaints along the way was trained in the identification of child sexual abuse or grooming.
“That was a system that was capable of permitting grooming behaviour to go unnoticed?” Ms Bennett said.
“That’s precisely what happened in this instance … there’s a chance that had they (all the complaints about Griffin) been put together and analysed together, that a pattern might have been identified.”
She said there had been a report that Griffin had planted a “wet kiss” on a child on the ward, at night – but the matter hadn’t been escalated because of a “lack of training and a lack of awareness of the processes”.
Mr Bellinger said he’d reviewed a number of complaints against Griffin, starting with the “wet kiss” incident – but denied they’d been “considered in a silo”.
He admitted in hindsight it was a “significant failing” that a complaint about Griffin – who told a group of young girls about a nurse called “titsy” whom he wanted to “shag” – wasn’t escalated.
Mr Bellinger agreed Griffin was transferred to Ashley Youth Detention Centre in the wake of this complaint, which he said in hindsight was an “error”.
Mr Bellinger also admitted subsequent reviews into complaints about Griffin were “deficient”, and that it was a “really significant failure of the hospital” not to take action on a credible 2011 report that he was a paedophile.
“Did you take any proactive steps to make the hospital safer at that time?” Ms Bennett asked.
“No,” Mr Bellinger replied. The commission of inquiry will continue its hearings in Launceston until July 8.