FAILURE TO PROTECT CHILDREN
TASMANIA Police was notified seven times over a 19year period by people concerned about the behaviour of paedophile nurse James Griffin. It was the last report by victim Tiffany Skeggs that finally led police to check the nurse’s mobile phone, where they found child exploitation material.
Later, police found images he had taken of young patients on the Launceston General Hospital children’s ward. In identifying the victims, Detective Senior Constable Glenn Hindle, who was handling the investigation, had to sanitise many of the images so he could safely show staff in ward 4K to get the children’s names.
The shocking revelations were made public in the commission of inquiry on Wednesday, again showing the extent of Griffin’s offending in the hospital.
Nineteen years earlier, in 2000, was the first time Griffin was reported.
Not surprisingly, it was for a similar issue, having inappropriate images of children on his computer.
What was learnt on Wednesday was that police did in fact eventually look into the case.
The computer was forensically examined interstate, but the material found - images of children in bikinis was not considered illegal material.
Nevertheless, Tasmania Police did let down victims in subsequent investigations and took too long to join the dots on Griffin.
Yesterday, Police Commissioner Darren Hine apologised, saying victim-survivors were let down by the force - through its investigative failures and missed opportunities.
“It has been confronting to hear the impacts that Griffin’s offending has had on the lives of victim-survivors and their families, and even more confronting to know there are opportunities where we could have put a stop to the offending,” Mr Hine said.
He went on to say that when he became aware Tasmania Police had information reports about Griffin’s behaviour dating back to 2009, “we immediately undertook a review”, releasing a report outlining “where our responses did not meet the standards I, or the community, expect or deserve”.
“I want to assure the community that we’ve taken significant steps to improve how we respond to information reports, how we share information, and how we educate, train and support our members in responding to victim-survivors,” Commissioner Hine said.
There is no doubt the case was a colossal stuff up. But we should give Mr Hine his due. He admitted the wrongs and apologised. There is much to be learnt. Let’s hope the system can be fixed so this never happens again.