A former worker at Tasmania's notorious Ashley Youth Detention Centre, who was the subject of multiple redress claims, continued to work there for almost another decade, a commission of inquiry examining the centre has heard.
This was despite the fact the government had paid compensation to his alleged victims and he had been stood down a further six times over allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
The worker, Walter*, eventually left on his own terms and was paid a lump sum for the sick leave and workers compensation claims he appeared to have made whilst stood down, the commission heard.
Tasmania's Commission of Inquiry into Government Responses into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings is wrapping up its hearings into the Ashley Youth Detention Centre, with the head of the department responsible spending almost a full day on the stand.
Department of Communities secretary Michael Pervan has been responsible for Ashley for around seven years, taking over in 2014, just after the state government's abuse in state care redress scheme wrapped up.
Within the many abuse in state care claims, there were a significant number relating to Ashley Youth Detention Centre — either in its current form or when it was a boys' home.
Mr Pervan was the one to sign off on a final report of the scheme and was aware "more broadly" that about 172 claims related to Ashley.
On Friday, he told the commission he was unable to "recall" if he'd tried to work out whether any of the alleged perpetrators were still working at Ashley.
He said he remembered asking what would happen with the information, but was referred to advice from 2007 from the office of the solicitor general that said it was unlikely redress matters could be used for criminal prosecution.
"In retrospect … we should've come up with some way of keeping track of that information," he told the commission.
But counsel assisting the commission Rachel Ellyard challenged that the advice didn't prevent the department from approaching claimants to see if they would participate in an investigation or using the information to protect children.
"One of the consequences we can now see with hindsight is that there were in fact a number of claims that related to people who were still employed at Ashley," Ms Ellyard put to Mr Pervan.
"Yes," he agreed.
"And who continued to be employed at Ashley, for years in some cases, after sums of money had been paid to people who claimed they'd been sexually abused by those workers," she put to him.
"Yes," Mr Pervan answered.
The commission then heard about the case of Walter.
At least four former Ashley detainees came forward through the abuse in state care scheme to accuse Walter of sexually abusing them.
Payments were made to these people in 2008 and 2010.
But the commission heard that the information was kept in isolation and never provided to those who managed or investigated Walter.
"The fact of Walter being accused of at least four people sexually abusing them remained utterly unknown to those who managed him at Ashley," said Ms Ellyard.
"At the same time that that was occurring, Walter was the subject of multiple [subsequent] allegations of sexual and/or physical sexual abuse of detainees, which were investigated."
Ms Ellyard said on one occasion he was criminally charged and acquitted of an allegation that he had physically assaulted a detainee.
Walter was stood down at least six times during his employment at Ashley because of concerns that led to investigations.
But each time, he was reinstated after the investigations.
"No-one knew and no-one could bring into the analysis the fact that there were multiple historical claims of abuse alleged against him, which had been the subject of payments," Ms Ellyard told the commission.
Interspersed with this, the commission heard, were a number of sick leave or work cover claims made by Walter "which appear at least to some extent to be lined up to times where he was the subject of the allegations of misconduct", Ms Ellyard said.
He would "leave on his own terms" in 2017, almost a decade after the first claims were made against him.
"His employment ultimately came to an arrangement that saw him receiving a lump sum arrising from claims he's made and there's no reference anywhere in that document to the multiple allegations made against him or indeed to the claims that had been paid out in relation to alleged abuse by him," Ms Ellyard told the commission.
Mr Pervan admitted that the department was not in the practice of using the redress complaints to assess the behaviour of a current worker.
"This rich potential source of information about Walter, a person who was regularly coming to the attention of management with serious allegations against him was never brought into the analysis of whether he was someone who was suitable or appropriate to remain in his job and he ultimately left on his own terms," Ms Ellyard told the commission.
Mr Pervan accepted it was a "system failure" and they had lost an opportunity to protect the children who entered Ashley from 2010 onwards.
'I also acknowledge that your pain will be lifelong'
Despite the growing calls for Ashley to close immediately, Mr Pervan said there was a possibility it could not close in two years because it would not be ready to do so.
"The target the former premier [Peter Gutwein] sent us was, to be kind, very ambitious but we're only going to get one chance to do this in a generation and everyone wants to do it right," he said.
"If it was just to design two detention facilities, we could probably find plans for those on the internet, and we could deliver to the timeline a building with a fence and a sallyport gate at the front and say that we've done the job.
"But we're actually putting the effort into doing it right, notwithstanding that we're very aware of that compressed timeline.
"If doing it right means that we won't meet that timeline on the knocker, that's something we will take it to the government as early as we can."
As he closed out his evidence, Mr Pervan offered an apology to the survivors of child sexual abuse "and any other forms of abuse" at Ashley.
"I have [been], and continue to be, personally deeply impacted by the survivors' experiences at Ashley," he said.
"I sincerely apologise to each and every young person that the Tasmanian government did not provide safe and secure care for at Ashley. I acknowledge the trauma that survivors suffer has and will continue to cause severe pain — physical, mental, emotional and cultural.
"I also acknowledge that your pain will be lifelong.That the abuse impacts who you are, who you wanted to be and how you feel about yourselves and others.
"I acknowledge trauma has been transmitted to your relationships with your families including your children and that that pain is lifelong, and I deeply regret it."
* Name has been changed
