Repeat sex offender wins right to work with children
A RAPIST who attacked his ex-partner as their daughter sat nearby has won the right to work with kids despite fierce opposition by authorities.
Law & Order
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A RAPIST who attacked his ex-partner as their daughter sat nearby has won the right to work with kids despite fierce opposition by authorities.
It brings to an end an eight-year battle by the intellectually disabled man, known as VTN, who has been granted a working with children check despite a decades-long history of sexual offending.
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Under Victorian laws, a working with children’s check must be refused to sexual offenders, but that can be appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
VCAT can grant the permit if they are satisfied it would not “pose an unjustifiable risk to the safety of children”.
After authorities refused to grant the man a permit, he successfully appealed to VCAT.
The Secretary to the Department of Justice appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, arguing VCAT had erred in granting the permit.
But Supreme Court justice Melinda Richards yesterday dismissed the appeal.
“I am not satisfied that VCAT failed to give paramount consideration to the protection of children from harm. Indeed, reading the reasons as a whole, I am positively satisfied to the contrary,” she said.
“Nor do I accept the Secretary’s alternative argument that VCAT gave excessive weight to VTN’s interests, and inadequate weight to the protection of children as the paramount consideration.”
In a vile attack, the man raped his ex-partner in 2005 after taking their nine-year-old daughter to visit her following a recent separation.
The rape was later described by a court as an “extremely serious case of sexual violence”.
It followed a similar attack weeks earlier with the man, who has an IQ of 66.
It was later revealed he had a drinking problem at the time, drank 24 cans of premixed drinks a day, and was smoking cannabis daily.
He was jailed for four years but paroled after 18 months and has not offended since.
In 1985, he was placed on a good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to sexual penetration and indecent assault of a minor. The man was 19 at the time and had been in a relationship with a 14-year-old.
The man was employed by an organisation that provides job opportunities for people with disabilities.
Following changes in that workplace it became a requirement that all employees hold a working with children check.
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