The mother of a child with a disability says her complaints to nurses and the Child Safety Service about the conduct of alleged paedophile Launceston General Hospital nurse James Geoffrey Griffin went unanswered.
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The woman gave evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's responses to child sexual abuse, detailing the experience of her daughter who is quadriplegic and non-verbal.
She was admitted to the LGH pediatric ward with complications following surgery in Melbourne, but the mother said the hospital did not arrange any communication methods for her daughter despite her being able to communicate by gestures and eye gaze.
There was also no bed prepared at the LGH on their arrival, or any other support structures, she said.
The girl, aged 11 at the time, was placed under the care of Mr Griffin and she soon started "acting strangely around him", the mother said.
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She detailed an incident in which Mr Griffin allegedly "tapped" the girl's vagina with his hand when the mother asked about a rash that had developed.
She also outlined arriving in the ward to find her daughter in immense distress, the day after she told Mr Griffin that she could communicate with her.
"I turned up the next day and she was screaming in her bed sweating, the blinds were all pulled down, and this was the room right outside the office," she told the commission.
Her daughter had cream "all over her vagina", she said, despite never having a rash there or being prescribed a cream. She also had an injury to her vagina.
"I could not understand what was going on, the doctors would not listen to me, no one was listening to me, no nurse was telling me what was going on, who was putting cream on her, nothing like that," she said.
Mr Griffin allegedly "shrugged it off" when asked about the incident, and another nurse on the ward "didn't seem that fussed about it" but offered her a complaint form.
"She said she could give me a form to fill and that's what she did, and she told me she was going to take complaints further, but whether or not, I have no idea," the mother said.
She was never contacted by anyone about the complaint, she said.
When they returned home, she said her daughter remained distressed about the experience.
"I just asked her if the man was 'bad', she said 'yes'," she said.
"She doesn't like going there, she'll start yelling as soon as we go through the doors. That's why I've said I would prefer to go to Hobart rather than up there."
No response to complaint about conduct
The mother also contacted the Child Safety Service, she said, and they sent someone to attend a meeting with teachers and an NDIS worker to discuss her daughter's level of home support.
She said she raised LGH incidents at this meeting.
"During the meeting I mentioned about [my daughter's] injury on her vagina, and that was completely dismissed by the pediatrician," she said.
"[Her] teacher and everyone else was shocked.
"Nothing had come from that."
Mr Griffin took his own life in 2019 after he was charged with multiple child sexual offences.
He was also the subject of evidence on the first day of the commission, when a mother discussed how he developed a personal relationship with her daughter who had been admitted to the LGH with an eating disorder.
On Tuesday, the mother of a child with disability said when allegations regarding Mr Griffin started to surface, "everything made sense".
"Everything we assumed happened, happened, and if not worse," she said.
She hoped that the commission could result in far more care in hospitals, after school care and other Tasmanian services, and that people have the right to be able to communicate, regardless of their disability.
Child abuse counselling offer not taken up in Ashley
The commission was also told that Tasmania's Sexual Assault Support Service had offered in-reach sexual abuse support counselling services for children in Ashley Youth Detention Centre, but these were not taken up by the department without explanation.
SASS chief executive officer Jill Maxwell said these services were operating for adults in Risdon Prison to provide counselling for victim-survivors of child sexual abuse, but not in the youth justice system.
She said there were examples where this abuse had occurred in Ashley, some in the past five years.
"Quite a lot of the ones that we have seen were victims of child sexual abuse within Ashley, historically, so there's a lack of trust with institutions, high dependency on drugs and alcohol to cope with their trauma, and hence the life of crime," Ms Maxwell said.
She said such a service should be offered in Ashley, as well as Risdon.
"I can't see why a detention centre for young people can't work in a similar model as to one for adults where they allow specialist organisations like us to work therapeutically with the survivors in there," Ms Maxwell said.
"That way, they're developing that rapport and relationship with our counsellors so when they're released from the centre, they've already got that."
A program was recently offered at Ashley in relation to harmful sexual behaviours, run by Northern support service Laurel House.
Chief executive officer Kathryn Fordyce said the program was around exploring consent and inappropriate sexual behaviour as a "primary prevention" focus, rather than specifically addressing past trauma.
She agreed that more external sexual assault support services should be able to run programs in Ashley.
- Sexual Assault Support Service (Tasmania): 1800 697 877
- Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114
- Tasmania's Victims of Crime Service: 1300 300 238