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Rape News Story 1 An "Educational Outing" By Bruce Grundy (2 November 2001) A young Aboriginal woman has confirmed claims by several former staff members of a Brisbane youth detention centre that she was gang raped while being held in the centre as a 14-year-old in care. The woman, now in her mid-twenties, said she was gang raped twice on a supervised outing from the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre in the late 1980s. Former members of staff at the centre have also claimed the matter was officially “swept under the carpet” and “quietly hushed up”. One former youth worker said if what had happened to the girl in question had happened to a white girl, “ … there would have been Hell to pay”. The woman, who cannot be identified under Queensland law, said she had been taken on a bus trip with a group of Aboriginal and white male inmates to an isolated spot in the country. One staff member had accompanied the inmates some distance into the bush and had left her with the boys. The man had returned to the carpark and to the other staff members. The woman said the boys had begun to demand sex and started arguing about who would “go through her” first. She said she told them to leave her alone but they had forced her on to on a large rock and raped her. The woman said what had happened to her on the first walk was repeated later in the day. When contacted about the incident, one of those reported to have been in charge of the excursion said: “I’m not interested in talking about that.” The man, a Families Department public servant, then denied he was aware of the incident. A woman who also supervised the excursion said she would prefer not to comment. She said she knew “what was alleged to have gone on” although she had no direct knowledge of what had occurred. “I know that the manager of the centre informed [the girl’s] mother of the allegations, and she came in to the centre, and … we were just told that when the mother was told all the alleged offences were committed by indigenous youth, they dropped it … so that was it … that was the end of whatever it was … they did not proceed.” Former leading criminal lawyer and Director of Public Prosecutions at the time of the incident, Des Sturgess QC, said “unless the story was incredible” the outcome of the matter was not one for the mother to decide. “That would be for the police to investigate and determine,” Mr Sturgess said. However, the girl’s parents have strenuously denied ever being told of the incident. They said the first the first they had heard of the matter was when asked by this reporter why they had decided not to take any action over it. Both have called for a full investigation. The manager of the centre at the time did not respond to a request for an interview. However he said anyone with allegations about the abuse of children at the centre should take them to the department, to the police or to the Criminal Justice Commission. “I would encourage anyone with such allegations to do so,” he said. The assistant manager at the time also declined to discuss the matter. “I have no comment to make,” she said. “How did you know I was here?” The woman currently works in the Department of Families. The Courier-Mail has been told by former members of staff they had “no doubt” the matter of the gang rape had been raised with the aborted 1989 Heiner Inquiry into the John Oxley Centre. Following the closing down of the inquiry the manager of the centre was paid over $27,000 for “entitlements” to which he was not entitled and required to sign a secrecy agreement. 2578 page visits Content Management Software 2010