Her 14-year-old daughter was allegedly raped and sodomised at her own school, but her attacker is still a free man due to a legal loophole allowing paedophiles to escape justice.
A Sydney mother told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that her daughter’s alleged abuser has never been punished because police view her daughter’s testimony as “unreliable” because she has an intellectual disability.
The woman – known by the pseudonym CIC – told the royal commission her teen daughter was raped by a staff member at Camden’s Mater Dei School in 1991.
She immediately lodged complaints with the school and police but they were never followed up because police believe her daughter wasn’t a credible witness, despite the fact that the same staff member had previously been accused of molesting a 15-year-old student with an intellectual disability and an eight-year-old boy with Down syndrome.
“It is so easy for people in positions of trust to abuse children under their care because they know a disabled child may not be able to communicate and report their abuse as easily as others can,” the mother said.
“Matters are not pursued by police or in court because these children are deemed incompetent or less reliable due to their disability.”
The alleged attacked moved from Australia to the UK shortly after the incident and remains there, a free man.
“People like him can get away with abusing children with disabilities like my daughter,” the mother said. “I am really upset and can’t stand that he is still out there and could be assaulting other children.”
The school’s current principal is due to give evidence later this week and the principal in charge at the time of the alleged assault will give evidence next week.
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