Ben Felton’s alleged Launceston General Hospital abuser stood down 32 years later, but only after The Nurse podcast

Ben Felton was allegedly abused by a Launceston General Hospital nurse in 1989. The commission of inquiry has now heard that man was only stood down last year after a podcast revealed his alleged crime.

A LAUNCESTON General Hospital nurse who allegedly sexually abused a 13-year-old patient in 1989 was only stood down from the state service in 2021 after the case was revealed in a podcast.

The nurse, referred to as George* by the child sexual abuse commission of inquiry, was a different offender to the now-infamous ward 4K paediatric nurse and prolific offender, James Geoffrey Griffin.

Over the past few months, the inquiry has heard of the lack of action taken against George in response to allegations by victim-survivor Ben Felton, both at the time and when he returned to the hospital in 2003 looking for answers.

Mr Felton previously told the commission that in 1989, executive director of medical services Peter Renshaw failed to take any action over the allegation, despite reassuring both Mr Felton and his father that “he would be removed from working with children” and “this will be a full investigation and I hope your son doesn’t remember”.

Mr Felton previously said when he returned to the hospital in 2003, he arrived at Dr Renshaw’s desk and said “I’m the little boy that wouldn’t remember”.

But he said Dr Renshaw wouldn’t answer as to whether George was still working in the health system, or if there had been an investigation, but eventually just “passed the buck” onto then-CEO Stephen Ayre – who also refused to answer his questions.

The commission this week heard that in 2005, the hospital received legal advice, which went to the-then secretary, that it was not legally liable for Mr Felton’s abuse.

On Thursday, Dr Ayre confirmed he didn’t conduct a fresh investigation in 2005 because an investigation “after such a period of time would be quite challenging”.

On Friday, Department of Health secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks – who took up her role in September 2019 – confirmed George was still a state servant in 2021.

Both she and Dr Renshaw confirmed a fresh investigation was not undertaken in 2005 to determine George’s whereabouts or his work status.

Ms Morgan-Wicks said she subjected George to a Code of Conduct investigation in 2021 after his case was outlined in Camille Bianchi’s podcast The Nurse.

She confirmed George had never been subject to such a process in the past.

“It occurred following a podcast and media reporting,” Ms Morgan-Wicks said.

She also confirmed she did not trigger an internal investigation at the hospital upon being notified in November 2019 about paedophile nurse James Geoffrey Griffin – albeit after receiving “misleading” information that his crimes were “external” to the hospital.

“At that time, knowing that someone who was at least potentially a child sex offender who had worked for many years on a children’s ward, is that not enough to trigger an investigation into what may have taken place on the ward?” counsel assisting the commission, Elizabeth Bennett SC, asked.

Ms Morgan-Wicks said she thought inquiries were “already being undertaken”, but conceded she didn’t conduct an internal hospital investigation “at that point”.

However, she said she was horrified “from October 2020, when this information started to appear from The Nurse podcast” – and took steps at that point to start an internal investigation.

“I apologise that was late in the piece, being some months after 2019 and the death of Mr Griffin.”

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Originally published as Ben Felton’s alleged Launceston General Hospital abuser stood down 32 years later, but only after The Nurse podcast