Paedo nurse manipulated us, says boss
SONJA Leonard was Jim Griffin’s boss for a decade.
The pair had a friendly working relationship.
For years, the Launceston General Hospital children’s ward nurse unit manager saw how Griffin hugged his young patients and referred to them as “baby”, “babe” or “princess”.
The male nurse also committed a number of “boundary violations” over the years – such as cuddling a child on a recliner and giving his phone number to patients.
But the complaints system at the hospital was unclear – and often undocumented.
The first port of call on the paediatric ward 4K was to notify Ms Leonard.
But as she admitted before the child sexual abuse commission of inquiry on Wednesday, she had “a negative relationship with a lot of staff on the ward”.
Ms Leonard also admitted the culture on the paediatric 4K ward was “complicated” and “dysfunctional”, and that there was a practice of keeping complaints “in-house”.
She said she “couldn’t recall” whether it took until 2017 – only two years before Griffin was charged with numerous child sexual abuse offences and then died by suicide – to tell him the behaviour was inappropriate.
At that point, Ms Leonard
drafted a letter with the support of the hospital’s human resources department to inform Griffin “this is not the first instance of a complaint of this nature” and “external agencies have been made aware”.
She started crying as she claimed her team had been “manipulated” by a paedophile who took advantage of a ward in disarray.
“The culture and the conflict and the undermining that was going on in the ward at the time, unfortunately, were a perfect storm for Mr Griffin to take advantage of,” she said.
“I have a lot to learn, as we all do.
“I feel deep, deep, deeply that we were deceived, we were manipulated and we were sold a version of Mr Griffin that he wanted us to believe.”
Also on Wednesday, former
human resources consultant Luigino Fratangelo said he could not remember meeting with whistleblower and hospital social worker Kylee Pearn in 2011 when she raised the alarm that Griffin was a paedophile.
Mr Fratangelo said he could not remember if he advised Ms Pearn that Griffin could not be removed from 4K unless he had a conviction.
But he said if he had met with Ms Pearn, he would have told her to go to police and that he understood under the state service code of conduct, suspending a staff member required a conviction.
The inquiry also heard Griffin was the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation delegate for the 4K ward for 16 years.
Tasmanian branch secretary Emily Shepherd told the commission the union
had no knowledge of his offending until after his death in 2019.
“It was absolutely shocking to the ANMF that an ANMF delegate had these allegations against him,” Ms Shepherd said.
The commission of inquiry will continue its Launceston hearings until July 8.
IT WAS INCORRECTLY REPORTED IN TUESDAY’S EDITION OF THE MERCURY THAT LAUNCESTON GENERAL HOSPITAL NURSE WILLIAM GORDON HAD HEARD CHILD SEXUAL ABUSER JAMES GEOFFREY GRIFFIN HAD GIVEN DATE RAPE DRUGS TO CHILDREN ON THE PAEDIATRIC WARD. THIS IS INCORRECT. IN FACT, MR GORDON SAID HE HEARD GRIFFIN REFERRING TO A SEDATIVE AS A DATE RAPE DRUG TO THE PARENTS OF A PATIENT.
THE MERCURY WISHES TO APOLOGISE FOR ANY DISTRESS CAUSED.