Abuse investigations by LGH, police, Children's Services failed

The Commission, whose redacted final report was made public on Tuesday, found that hospitals were vulnerable places for children because abusers were found to be able to take advantage of positions of trust and health expertise to mask abuse.

At the LGH, numerous staff members raised concerns about the hospital's culture that allowed serious and tragic abuse to continue for years in some cases.

"Considered as a whole, they suggest a culture that discourages complaints of misconduct and therefore allowed such conduct to go unaddressed," the report read.

The Commission primarily focused on the abuse by former paedophile nurse James Griffin, who was charged with abusing children while he worked in the paediatric ward of the LGH.

The Commission found that LGH management failed to respond appropriately to Kylee Pearn's disclosure of abuse by James Griffin in 2011 or 2012, leaving children exposed to potential risk for eight years.

Griffin was eventually charged by police and died by suicide shortly afterwards in 2019.

The Commission also looked at the case of Zoe Duncan, a young girl whose initial complaints about abuse at the hands of a medical practitioner at the LGH were ignored by police and hospital authorities.

According to the report, "a series of wrongful assumptions and inadequate investigations" followed Ms Duncan's complaints.

The Commission found that former LGH executive director of medical services, Dr Peter Renshaw, failed to report suspected child abuse.

It also found that the investigations of Ms Duncan's complaint by the Tasmania Police and the Child Safety Service were "inadequate".

"Launceston General Hospital failed in its overall response and did not offer appropriate support to Zoe Duncan and her family," the report read.

Zoe died of an illness in 2017 after refusing to return to the LGH for treatment.

Speaking after the report's release, Anne Duncan, mother to Zoe, said the findings were a "beginning".

"If this really is a watershed moment in Tasmanian history, we can look back in 100 years and say, 'This is where it changed. This is where it stopped'".

She said the most important thing was the duty of care we all have to individuals.

"Policies and procedures and practices are important to institutions.

"But it still comes down to duty of care for the individual," she said.

She said she was "very grateful" to Peter Gutwein for starting the Commission of Inquiry and Jeremy Rockliff for following it through.

"I'm very grateful that after 21 years, this has finally happened.

"As Amanda said, we'd like Zoe to have been here today to hear this, but I think she'd be very pleased with what's happened today."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: