Payout by school on pedophile
By Chris Taylor and Melissa Ketchell
February 22, 2004

A NORTH Queensland Christian primary school has been forced to pay damages to two children after knowingly allowing a convicted pedophile to work on campus as a volunteer.

Calvary Temple Christian College bosses agreed to pay the two families $70,000 – in addition to hefty legal costs – after school bosses allowed pedophile Ian Peter Read to help with the school's swimming program, during which he sexually assaulted two girls.

However, the families could have been awarded substantially higher compensation had they agreed to the school's demands that they sign confidentiality agreements, which would have protected both the college and 43-year-old Read from exposure.

Instead the families opted to accept the out-of-court settlement, refusing to sign the agreement, at the culmination of a year-long legal battle.

The case has left lawyers dumbfounded as to how school bosses could have allowed Read to volunteer when it knew that he had five previous convictions for child sex offences.

A letter to the Townsville school, written in July 1998 and obtained by The Sunday Mail, shows Calvary bosses were warned Read had been convicted in 1982 of five counts of indecent dealing involving four girls aged under 14 and was sentenced to two years probation.

Read's lecturer from James Cook University – where he was studying for a Bachelor of Education – wrote to the school asking that he be considered for work experience but clearly outlining his criminal convictions.

"Ian is keen to be given the chance to teach in primary schools," the lecturer wrote.

Less than two months later, the school allowed Read to start non-paid work experience despite also being advised by his father-in-law about his criminal past.

The lawyer for the two girls, Damian Scattini, said Calvary staff had failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for why they had allowed Read on campus during the protracted legal negotiations.

He said the decision to allow him to interact with children in swimming lessons was negligent in the extreme.

"This school knowingly employed a pedophile and why they allowed it is a very good question," Mr Scattini said. "At the end of the day, they should have had to pay more but for the families it was never about the money. That's shown by their refusal to sign any confidentiality agreement.

"The parents refused because they wanted to settle on the basis that there would be no confidentiality."

Read was sentenced early last year to two years in prison for molesting the two children during a sports session at the school swimming pool in November 2001.

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It seems rather ridiculous to me that such a person was even able to apply and to be accepted to a Teachers College. It seems that the system has some serious problems.

DS