Royal Commission told psychological testing found paedophile Shannon McCoole had potential to abuse authority before he was hired

PSYCHOLOGICAL testing found paedophile Shannon McCoole had potential to abuse authority and was likely to be a problematic employee before he was hired by Families SA.

• INQUIRY: McCoole worked shift while he was suspended
• INQUIRY: McCoole identified as ‘high risk’ but was still hired
• SENTENCED: McCoole jailed for 35 years for horrific sexual abuse

PSYCHOLOGICAL testing found paedophile Shannon McCoole had potential to abuse authority and was likely to be a problematic employee before he was hired by Families SA.

The test results prompted two people on a Families SA recruitment panel to recommend McCoole be rejected but they were overruled by the chairman.

However, the panel chairman conceded he was ill-equipped to assess McCoole’s results, having received training in “merit selection” of job applicants but not in interpreting psychometric test results. On that topic, he received only a “verbal briefing”.

The evidence emerged during a hearing today of the Royal Commission into the state’s child protection system.

It is examining the employment of McCoole as a residential care worker supervising children living in state care.

He was last year jailed for 35 years for sexually abusing children in his care between 2011 and 2014.

Today, the commission took evidence from a Families SA senior youth worker who headed the recruitment panel which assessed McCoole in early 2012.

The man, who cannot be named, told Counsel Assisting, Emily Telfer, that it was “appropriate” for him to review the decision of the other two panel members because they were less experienced.

The commission heard the recruitment process had changed since McCoole was hired.
During the hearing, Ms Telfer detailed findings of McCoole’s psychometric test, including that he had “some potential for abuse of authority” and was “likely to be problematic” as an employee.

He also scored “somewhat above average” on aggression but “slightly below average” for self discipline.

The report stated that “being in charge and directing others seems to be a high priority for Shannon”. It was noted this could suggest he had leadership potential.

Overall, the Australian Institute of Forensic Psychology (AIFP) report labelled McCoole “high risk” and recommended “extreme caution” in considering him.

The senior youth worker said it was “somewhat unusual” to progress a candidate with such results.

However, he said McCoole was one of “a number” of people labelled “high risk” and another person in the test group “with similar results” had also been put through to interview.

He believed the “high risk aspect for Shannon probably came down to the amount of emotional problems he had in the past”.

The senior youth worker said a two-day training course would have cost $7000 and an “executive decision” was made that it was too expensive.

Asked whether he believed he was given “adequate” training and preparation to properly evaluate McCoole’s test results, he replied “no”.

“You’re required to draw a lot of information from a lot of different aspects. That’s really getting quite difficult for the untrained person,” he said of interpreting the results.

“I suppose I’m not equipped to have a look at all of that and determine how much of an issue it is.

“I still today can’t really identify what makes him high risk and what that risk is.

“I certainly didn’t think that (risk of the candidate abusing children) was what we were measuring.”

The senior youth worker believed some negative attributes identified in McCoole’s test could be performance managed.

The commission also heard McCoole’s medical test showed he had a “very high” body mass index and a history of anxiety medication, but that this would not automatically preclude him from working for Families SA.