A former student protection officer at a Queensland primary school says she could not understand why students who had been sexually abused "didn't have the courage to come forward".
Catherine Long was a student protection officer at the Toowoomba primary school where teacher Gerard Vincent Byrnes molested 13 female students, all aged between nine and 10, in 2007 and 2008.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking at why Byrnes was allowed to go on offending for more than a year after allegations were first made against him to the school.
Byrnes, the school's child protection contact, pleaded guilty in 2010 to child sex offences, including rape. He carried out all but two of his crimes in the classroom.
Ms Long, who still teaches at the school, was questioned by the commission in Brisbane as to why she did not refer one student's complaint to police or authorities.
She said some of the relevant school protocols were difficult to understand and she was reluctant to believe her colleague was a paedophile.
"And I don't get that our children, with all of this student protection and everything else that we have, didn't have the courage to come forward," she said.
Ms Long also told the hearing she believed referring the matter to police was the principal's responsibility.
"I was there as the note-taker - he was in charge, not me," she said.
Principal told but no action taken
One of the parents reported the his daughter's accusations of abuse to the principal at the time, Terrence Hayes, as well as another teacher, but neither related the accusations to the police.
"The teacher wasn't suspended, he remained in the class for the last term, and then a whole new school year in 2008 where, sadly, he went on to abuse more of the young girls," said Monique Scattini, who legally represented the families of five of the abused girls.
Mr Hayes was charged with failing to tell police about the abuse complaints, but was later acquitted. He is expected to give evidence later this week.
No action was taken against Byrnes, a veteran teacher and father of eight children, until a parent of an abused girl went directly to the police.
"There actually were systems and procedures in place and they had been accredited, but still there was something that prevented the strong application of those," said Janette Dines, the chief executive of the commission.
"And in this case, the abuse not just continued but escalated after the first complaints were made."
The parents of three of the victims fronted the commission today, with one mother saying the school's refusal to act on allegations was "disgusting".
Another mother of an abuse victim said she and other parents were ostracised by the school community after they complained about the abuse, and how the school had dealt with their concerns.
"The parents of the victims were made out to be the bad guys," she said.
Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of the Church's Truth Justice Healing Council, admits the case was mishandled.
"There's no doubt that there would still be considerable anger at the Church over its handling [of this case]," he said.
"We've discussed the loss of trust about what's occurring ... [in a] close-knit community something like this really goes to the heart of relationships."
The hearing is expected to last for five days.
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