Kevin Leslie Baker fined for attempted indecent treatment of child at Neerkol

A 25-odd year long chapter has been closed for a former Neerkol resident and worker accused of child sex abuse offences.

A 25-odd year long chapter has closed for a former Neerkol resident and worker who has been the subject of child sex abuse allegations during an inquest, Royal Commission and five trials.

Kevin Leslie Baker, 82, pleaded guilty on November 10, 2021, in Rockhampton District Court to one count of attempted indecent treatment of a boy under 14.

He walked out of court with a $500 fine and no conviction recorded.

All other charges, including six indecent assaults and two of indecent treatment of a boy under 14, were dismissed.

Crown prosecutor Nigel Rees said that during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Baker faced numerous allegations involving children at the notorious St Joseph’s Neerkol orphanage just outside Rockhampton.

The first allegations stemmed from former Queensland governor Leneen Forde’s 1998-1999 inquiry into institutional child abuse in Queensland institutions which exposed the Neerkol cases.

Mr Rees said Baker was acquitted of charges in five trials, including one last month in Brisbane, and was subjected to an Attorney-General appeal in 2002.

He was acquitted of seven counts of rape, one deprivation of liberty, seven indecent assault counts and two counts of carnal knowledge against the order of nature, in a trial held in Gladstone in February 2020.

Mr Rees said the catalyst for the latest charges and allegations was the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which ran in 2013.

Baker had been placed in the care of the Sisters of Mercy nuns at Neerkol when he was six weeks old.

He left the orphanage, which also housed wards of the state and other children relinquished by their parents, at the age of 18 to complete a baker’s apprenticeship.

At 21, he contacted his biological mother who was living in Shepparton, Victoria.

At 25, he returned to Neerkol to work as a baker and groundsman.

It was during this period the attempted indecent treatment of a child took place.

Mr Rees said the victim was aged 10-13 during the period when the offence took place.

The court heard the nuns would ask Baker to deal out punishments or assist in looking after the institution’s charges, of which there were up to 200 at any given time.

Defence barrister Simon Lewis said that in this instance, Baker had been asked to supervise the boys showering as they had been boasting they “hadn’t been tubbing”.

“The nuns had difficulty controlling some of them,” he said.

Baker was checking on the victim and became suspicious he was lying about having washed his genitals.

He told the victim to unlock the cubicle to show him he had properly cleaned himself.

The door was unlocked and Baker stepped in.

Mr Lewis said Baker overstepped in that he went to grab the boy’s penis for checking.

Baker did not touch the boy’s genitals as the boy told him to get out, which he did.

“There isn’t a sexual component to the offending,” Mr Lewis said.

Judge Craig Chowdhury said these circumstances were unusual.

“There really isn’t any reason for you to be touching the boy’s penis,” he said.

Judge Chowdhury said there was no reason for any adult, apart from medical practitioners, to be touching a boy’s genitals.

Baker went on to work for the railways for 25 years after he left Neerkol and to be married when he was 34 years old.

Mr Lewis pointed out had this charge been dealt with back in the 1970s, it would have been dealt with in the magistrates court.

He argued a community service order for this offence would be problematic for Baker, despite him being of “robust health”, to carry out and probation “wouldn’t be of much use for him”.