What Happened At John Oxley
From: The Queensland Independent, March 2003
Queensland Independent reporters have been looking back at the cases of abuse of children in John Oxley that we know were covered up by the shredding, and at other abuses that were very likely covered up, or might have been prevented had the Inquiry been allowed to run its course.
EVIDENCE of systemic abuse of children entrusted to the state's care was deliberately destroyed by the Queensland government 13 years ago last Sunday.
In one of its first acts in power, the Goss Labor administration in February 1990 shut down the Heiner Inquiry into the John Oxley Youth Centre.
The government then proceeded to shred all the evidence collected by the inquiry despite knowing not only that it was required for legal proceedings but also that it contained allegations of child abuse.
Two Senate Committees and two independent reports have since recommended the matter of the shredding be thoroughly investigated. And despite revelations of serious abuse residents in the centre, the Queensland Police, the Criminal Justice Commission (now Crime and Misconduct Commission), the Crime Commission, and three successive Queensland governments, have chosen to look the other way.
The 1999 Forde Report commissioned to examine the State's child protection record did not address the shredding, or examine the abuse (apart from one incident) that the shredding concealed.
So what was contained in the shredded documents -- more than 100 hours of taped interviews, transcripts and other materials - that the covered up?
And what is it that is so threatening about the John Oxley saga that has caused governments, and all manner of state agencies, to have endeavoured to bury the matter for over a decade?
In the 13 years since the shredding, details have emerged as to what life inside John Oxley was like and they have completely vindicated the decision of the Minister who established the Heiner Inquiry.
In a signed statement to former Police Commissioner Noel Newnham in 1998, former Minister for Family Services, Beryce Nelson, said she set up the inquiry when she became aware of allegations of, amongst other things:
· physical and sexual abuse of children by staff, including reports that children "…were being forced into sexual activity … for the benefit of others";
· illicit drugs and prescribed medications provided [improperly] to children by staff and other residents;
· an employee allowing a mixed group to spend a night together.
Internal documents have now confirmed the gang rape of a 14-year-old girl on a supervised excursion from the centre - and that nothing was done to address the matter for three days and that the police took no action.
Inquiries have also revealed the girl was the victim of two more pack rapes while being required to undertake excursions into the bush with male inmates.
Another girl has reported being raped by a male employee inside John Oxley and at his home, and internal and other documents have revealed a third was the victim of an improper relationship with a member of staff.
Girls were also taken by non-custodial staff on excursions (to Wivenhoe Dam, for instance) and allegations of sexual assault, or improper advances by the staff, during those excursions, have been made by former residents.
Three weeks before the shredding the-then Acting Manager at John Oxley, Anne Dutney, wrote in a memorandum to Director of Organisational Services, Gary Clarke, that.
· a youth worker had placed a suicidal child in shared accommodation with another child who was taunting her to kill herself;
· the same youth worker had rolled Panadol under a door to a child who was known to have previously overdosed by hoarding the same drug;
· a youth worker slept on duty and during training sessions;
· another youth worker was performing so poorly that she would be unlikely to be appointed on merit.
Concerns about staff selection and suitability were expressed by former John Oxley Manager, Michael Tansky, in evidence to the Forde Inquiry.
According to Mr Tansky at one stage criminal records checks revealed that 22 staff working in Queensland youth detention centres were found to have criminal histories; and one individual had been charged with the rape and abduction of a 16-year-old.
Mr Tansky was speaking about a time when the government claimed it had solved the problems that had existed at the John Oxley centre.
The Forde Report in 1999 revealed that:
· underqualified and vastly inexperienced staff who "resorted to … force…because they did not have the training to deal with problems in other ways…";
· an anal search of a 14-year-old boy by a staff member who joked and called him a "poofter" and "faggot";
· archival material and witness accounts indicating physical abuse of children by staff including cigarette burns and assault causing loss of consciousness and hospitalisation;
· violence between children at a "… significant level of frequency…" and "… a continuing failure to ensure that residents were protected from other residents".
· improper use of separation as a discipline technique in direct breach of Juvenile Justice Regulations;
· the handcuffing of children including one incident in which two teenagers were shackled in the open overnight. (Amberley air base recorded a minimum temperature of 2.9 degrees C on the night in question).
· While the Forde Inquiry was in progress, a resident committed suicide by hanging himself from a ventilation grille (a hanging point that had been identified ten years earlier at the time of the Heiner Inquiry but never rectified).
Former Goss cabinet Minister Pat Comben told the Sunday program in 1999 that at the time of the shredding "…we were all made aware that there was material about child abuse…".
He also said: "…it was accepted on face value that if this matter was of such concern to have got to a level of Cabinet decision then the … allegations must have had considerable merit and substance."
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