Police claim abuse cover-up
14.12.2007
QUEENSLAND government ministers ordered Department of Child Safety workers not to tell police about hundreds of cases of suspected child abuse and neglect on Cape York following a row over the gang rape of a 10-year-old girl at the Aboriginal community of Aurukun.
The explosive claim is contained in a record of interview by investigators with a senior child protection specialist police officer, which was obtained by The Australian yesterday.
A investigative review team -- led by the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission -- was tasked with investigating why the department took the 10-year-old girl from a safe foster home in Cairns and returned her to the Aurukun community, where she was subsequently gang-raped in May last year, and then failed to promptly alert police of the crime.
The review team heard that hundreds of reports of children being sexually abused and neglected in Cape York communities last year were kept from police by Child Safety officers, who had been directed not to pass the reports to police or even talk to them.
According to the team's 400-page report, Detective Sergeant David Harold from Cairns Child Protection Investigation Unit told the team that police became aware of ``numerous child protection issues through the Cape we hadn't been advised of''.
While there have been numerous cases where child safety officers had failed to pass evidence to police, Sergeant Harold said: ``It got to a political level at that stage where I believe ministers got involved and certain people were told not to speak to police. My job was to track down each (medical) clinic in the Cape and I got that under way ... but then there was some political issues where a directive came from Brisbane (that) `You are not allowed to talk to the police -- don't tell them anything'.''
Sergeant Harold said that even the clinics were eventually told not to advise police of any reports they had made of abused or raped children and which had been sent to the Department of Child Safety.
The alleged political issues and the ministerial directive came soon after senior Northern Territory prosecutor Nanette Rogers exposed the horror of indigenous violence, sparking widespread outrage in Australia and ultimately leading to the Howard government's intervention in Territory communities.
At the time, the Queensland Government was at pains to stress that it did not have the same level of crime in its indigenous communities. Even after a public outcry over the handling of the Aurukun case by the justice and child safety systems -- sparked by Monday's exclusive report in The Australian on the lenient sentence given to the nine gang-rapists -- the state Government has rejected the need for a Territory-style intervention.
Sergeant Harold also revealed he and other police had insisted that social workers at Aurukun fly the 10-year-old girl to Cairns on June 8 and June 9 last year after she told medical examiners that she had been raped by many men and had contracted gonorrhea.
However, two Child Safety officers did not agree, saying arrangements had been made for the child to spend the weekend with family members on an outstation.
The girl did not go to the outstation and on that weekend was raped again in Aurukun by a 15-year-old youth who pleaded guilty to the offence on October 24 last year.
The director-general of the Department of Child Safety, Norelle Deeth, last night confirmed the girl's family and Child Safety officers had agreed to move her to Cairns.
``Tragically, this safety plan was not enacted prior to further sexual assaults,'' Ms Deeth said.
In a rare statement, Ms Deeth also said the girl was taken out of the Cairns foster home only to attend a funeral in Aurukun, but refused to return and remained in the community with a family member.
``Against this backdrop, staff made what they thought at the time was the best decision,'' Ms Deeth said.
``Sadly, this decision subsequently proved to be wrong.''
Speaking about the subsequent arrest of the girl's rapists, Sergeant Harold said: ``All of them made full admissions as well as provided statements nominating -- and in a group situation where there were five or six or more raping her -- they also provided ... there were other witnesses as well who provided statements nominating other people.''
Sergeant Harold said the girl had presented to the Aurukun clinic on May 5 last year requesting a pregnancy test and told the doctor that she was having sex.
After the girl was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease, the Aurukun director of nursing, Peter Fenton, sent a fax message on May 15 to the Child Safety representatives. It was never acknowledged.
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When Sergeant Harold visited Aurukun on June 6 last year, he was told about the girl, and he asked why a report had not been sent to him, as was the normal procedure.
He had the girl and her carer, her aunt, brought to the police station, and she told him of the rapes. That was when Sergeant Harold instructed that she be taken to Cairns. But it did not happen, and within the next 24 hours, she was raped again.
He said that when the girl was flown by the department to Cairns the following week, she was put in the control of an Aurukun woman, and he questioned whether she was appropriate to look after the girl.
``(The woman) had only just got out of jail for an extremely serious stabbing ... so whether she was an appropriate person to be caring for (the girl), I have concerns,'' Sergeant Harold told the review team.
He outlined in detail his frustration with the two Child Safety officers who, he said, resisted moving the child to Cairns.
An official involved with the review team said they had been instructed that they were not allowed to speak to any government minister, including the then child safety minister Mike Reynolds, who is now the Speaker of the Queensland parliament.
Mr Reynolds is overseas and not available for comment, and the two Child Safety officers did not return calls.
