A senior executive at Launceston General Hospital (LGH) has told an investigation into child abuse that he got most of his information about an investigation into pedophile nurse James Geoffrey Griffin from two podcasts.
Key points:
- The commission of inquiry has heard evidence of catastrophic failures in the hospital regarding the handling of claims about nurse James Griffin
- A nursing executive director said the discovery that a pedophile had been working in the ward for 18 years was not dealt with urgently enough.
- Griffin was charged after Tiffany Skeggs told police she was abused by him from the age of 12 until her teens.
WARNING: This article contains content that some readers may find distressing.
The Tasmanian Child Sexual Abuse Commission of Inquiry was informed this week of the catastrophic failures at the hospital regarding Griffin’s treatment and the consequences of the revelations about him.
Helen Bryan has testified on the Tasmanian Commission on Child Sexual Abuse Research Commission, which this week focuses on pedophile James Geoffrey Griffin, who was a nurse in the children’s ward for nearly two decades.
Ms. Bryan is executive director of nursing at the LGH.
He told the commission of inquiry that he learned of Griffin in July 2019, when the executive director of medical services, Dr. Peter Renshaw, told him there was a police investigation into the allegations that he was a pedophile.
Ms. Bryan told the investigation that she accepted that it was a critical incident, the discovery that a pedophile had been working in the ward for 18 years, but that it was not answered, as such, and that she should ‘having actively participated, but was not.
She said she had been excluded from “multiple meetings.”
“That doesn’t dissolve my responsibility and accountability, and I accept that, and I would do things very differently if that happened tomorrow,” he said.
“I want to apologize for not doing it right, or committing to fulfilling all my responsibilities properly, and letting others exclude me from the process.”
Ms Bryan told the committee that Dr Renshaw took charge of managing the response and reviewing the hospital following the 2019 revelations about Griffin.
“I didn’t see any reports. I had no further input or comments,” he said.
“I got a lot of information from the two podcasts I listened to.”
Tiffany Skeggs has spoken of her dismay at learning that Griffin was granted bail, despite her warnings that it was a risk to others and that life was likely to be taken away. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
Journalist Camille Bianchi’s podcast, The Nurse, was one of the catalysts for the commission of inquiry.
Mrs. Bryan admitted she should have looked for more information.
Hospital executive director Eric Daniels told the investigation that when he learned of Griffin, he was out of his depth. He “apologized unreservedly” for the mistakes.
“I wasn’t prepared for an event like this. I had never encountered this problem before and I don’t think I was prepared to handle it effectively.”
He told the commission there had been catastrophic failures at the hospital for his management of Griffin.
Inadequate claims system
Another manager admitted that none of the hospital’s complaint systems were adequate to identify child sexual abuse and no one had had the training to identify this type of abuse or preparation.
Janette Tonks is the hospital’s director of nursing and midwifery services for women and children, and Griffin’s direct manager informed her.
Lines of support for sexual assault and domestic violence:
The commission of inquiry has heard this week that there were multiple reports and warnings given to Griffin about breaches of professional boundaries while working at the hospital.
Ms Tonks told the consultation that reports could be made through a patient liaison complaint form, by going directly to the nursing unit manager or through a system called SLRS, which was designed for the reports. clinical safety.
However, he said, none of these systems were able to satisfactorily identify child sexual abuse and there was no central repository to identify cases or potential signs of child sexual abuse or readiness in the hospital.
“Then, I am aware that none of us had any education and training in child sexual abuse or preparation behaviors,” Ms. Tonks said.
Ms Tonks told the investigation she had not heard anything until this week about a 2011 report made to the hospital by Kylee Pearn, who earlier told the committee she had warned the hospital that Griffin was a pedophile and who had abused him.
Ms. Bryan told the investigation that she had not heard of Ms. Pearn’s report to date either.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and … I should have known. I didn’t know,” Bryan said.
The investigation learned earlier this week that a nurse, Will Gordon, filed a complaint about Griffin’s behavior with teenage girls in 2017.
Ms Tonks told the investigation that at the time, Griffin’s manager, Sonja Leonard, spoke to her about the complaint and alerted her that there had been previous breaches of professional boundaries, but did not go into details, and he asked no questions. about them.
The investigation heard Mr Griffin receive a warning about breaches of limits.
Ms. Tonks said she was happy at the time with how this complaint was handled.
“Now, I think, I should have been more actively involved and given more help to Sonja [Leonard] given that he had no experience, ”he said.
Commission attorney Elizabeth Bennett asked Ms. Tonks why no one had noticed that Ms. Leonard was overwhelmed and poorly trained in a room that had a toxic culture.
“I would have been more than happy to offer him any training and training if he had alerted me at that time,” Mrs. Tonks replied.
Will Gordon went to the Integrity Commission in November 2019 to ask him to investigate possible cover-ups and failures to report misconduct to the health service.
The head of the Integrity Commission, Michael Easton, examined the complaint and it was sent back to the health department.
“This was a job in crisis,” he told the commission.
“When we researched, it comes with a lot of luggage and brand and impact … we weren’t convinced that … it would necessarily help anyone and, in fact, could hurt people even more.”
The survivor warned that Griffin police would take his own life
Griffin was charged after Tiffany Skeggs told police she was abused by him from the age of 12 until her teens.
He was later charged with abusing more children, but committed suicide before he could be tried.
Mrs Skeggs has spoken of her dismay at learning that she was being released on bail, despite her warnings that it was a risk and could take her life.
“I can’t understand for my life how someone, whether the initial police bail or the subsequent bail, could consider me safe to return to the community, which did not pose a risk to the community or the children. accusers and, more specifically, that he posed no risk to himself, ”he said.
“He had informed the police. He had given them proof of his claim that, to quote his words, ‘I will kill myself before I go to jail,’ and they still released him.”
Skeggs told the investigation that police had told her that Griffin had been “on her radar” for a while and that they only needed someone like her to move forward.
He said he had not been aware of Mrs Pearn’s report to the hospital and police in 2011.
“It shouldn’t have been her responsibility to protect herself and the rest of us,” she said.
“She did her part. She handed it to the right people and they didn’t do anything.”
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Posted 8 hours, 8 hours ago, Thu, June 30, 2022 at 6:10 AM, updated 6 hours ago, 6 hours ago, Thu, June 30, 2022 at 8:28 AM