Child abuse material found on James Griffin’s computer two decades before he was charged

In 2000, an unsuspecting buyer found child abuse material on paedophile James Geoffrey Griffin’s old computer. That person reported it, but Griffin was not charged until almost 20 years later.

IN THE year 2000, a person who bought an old computer from James Geoffrey Griffin made a horrifying discovery when they realised the device contained child exploitation material and links to websites.

While they reported the find to Tasmania Police, the notorious nurse and now-deceased paedophile wasn’t charged with child abuse until almost two decades later.

On Monday, the child sexual abuse commission of inquiry heard the person was distressed to hear their complaints hadn’t progressed.

In a 2001 follow-up email read by counsel assisting the commission, Elizabeth Bennett SC, the person expressed their concerns about Griffin working children at the paediatric ward of the Launceston General Hospital.

“I wrote to you a number of months ago regarding a registered nurse named Jim Griffin in the Launceston area who I believe is linked with internet pornography involving minors, based on the contents of the computer he owned and sold to me,” the person wrote to Tasmania Police.

“I find it very distressing that I have heard nothing about any inquiries. I do not want to think he is working in a kid’s ward somewhere in Tasmania unsupervised, given what I have found.”

Ms Bennett said the issue would be “properly ventilated” with Tasmania Police in the coming weeks.

Counsel assisting Tasmania's child sexual abuse commission of inquiry, Elizabeth Bennett SC. Picture: ABC

Griffin began working at the children’s ward in September 2001, where he stayed for 18 years, including a stint at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in 2017.

The commission heard a number of complaints were made about Griffin’s behaviour over the years, and that he was given several warnings by the hospital – but the Tasmanian Health Service and police failed to fully investigate him or take any action.

Also on Monday, registered nurse Will Gordon told the commission anyone who wanted to be promoted “needed to be a yes person”.

“In order to not upset the apple cart, I didn’t raise any concerns,” he said.

He said the culture on 4K was “of tension, of high anxiety, a lot of nurses constantly watching their backs”.

“It was very much a don’t speak up, shut up, do your job,” Mr Gordon said.

He described Griffin as well-liked, although some staff found him “creepy” and that he “could be quite intimidating at times”.

Eventually, Mr Gordon made a complaint about Griffin speaking about sexual topics with a group of girls.

While he was told his identity as a complainant would be kept anonymous, the commission confirmed that Griffin was told it was Mr Gordon who made the complaint.

Griffin was moved for a time to the Ashley Youth Detention Centre, saying to Mr Gordon “there’s a lot of f … ing dibby-dobbers on this ward”.

Mr Gordon ultimately made contact with Camille Bianchi, an interstate journalist who revealed the extent of Griffin’s crimes in her 2020 podcast, The Nurse.

Griffin died by suicide in 2019 after he was charged with eight counts of indecent assault, one count of sexual intercourse with a young person and three child exploitation material charges.

Family of little girl raped by doctor finally gets apology - June 27

A LONG overdue apology has finally been offered to the parents of a young girl raped by a Launceston General Hospital doctor.

That little girl – Zoe Duncan – tragically died in 2017 after years of chronic illness following the 2001 rape, with her parents explaining “ the stress and the hurt literally killed her”.

On Monday, former hospital CEO Elizabeth Stackhouse apologised to Zoe’s parents, Craig and Anne Duncan, while giving evidence at the child sexual abuse commission of inquiry.

She admitted “the LGH collectively let the family down”.

The now-retired Ms Stackhouse, who held her role between 1998 to 2003, explained no-one at the hospital had overall responsibility for child safety.

She said on reflection, the staff member who managed the Duncan’s rape allegation should have been reprimanded for failing to immediately elevate the complaint.

“There should have been a mandatory notice immediately to Child and Family Services,” she said.

Also on Monday, Mr Duncan explained how his daughter’s personality changed completely before and after the rape.

“There used to be a lot of laughter in our house,” he said.

“Zoe had this beautiful, beautiful laugh that reminded me of my mum, it was just gorgeous.”

He said he remembered Dr Tim* saying “you’ve got a very beautiful daughter” and seemed proud that he’d be treating Zoe.

But when he came to pick up his daughter, she was curled up in the foetal position.

“(She said) dad, dad, keep that man away from me. He’s a madman, he’s dangerous’,” Mr Duncan said.

When the Duncans realised their daughter had been sexually abused, and later realised she’d been raped, they tried to report it to the hospital.

But staff dismissed their allegations, finding sexual abuse couldn’t have happened on such a busy ward.

“They were more interested in protecting their institutional reputations, or their individual reputations,” Mr Duncan said.

A registrar said “the doctor’s a very nice man and he wouldn’t have meant any harm”, while another staff member said “Zoe wasn’t upset enough for sexual assault of any type to have occurred”.

The staff member referred to by Ms Stackhouse also offered an apology, via the commission – albeit some 20 years late – for the seven-day delay in reporting the incident.

“I am saddened to hear that because if it had been said four, five years earlier, we could have passed that on to our daughter, who was still alive at that time,” Mrs Duncan said.

Survivor tells inquiry of traumatic LGH sexual abuse - June 27

BEN Felton remembers every little detail of the night he was sexually abused at Launceston General Hospital – right down to the deodorant the paedophile was wearing.

It was 1989, and the 13-year-old had been admitted to paediatric ward 4K with pneumonia when a nurse took him “on a rabbit warren search” to a kitchen in the middle of the night.

“It had been cleaned. All I could smell was methylated spirits and bleach,” Mr Felton told Tasmania’s child sexual abuse commission of inquiry on Monday.

“He was sweating and jittery, hyper-excited, I guess you could say.”

Mr Felton slapped him away and ran back to his bed, where he lay awake, crying and shaking all night.

When his parents visited him the next day, he told them what had happened – and the devastated family met with a hospital staff member.

What they wanted was a full investigation, for the perpetrator to be charged and removed from duty.

But what the Feltons got was nothing – no information, no counselling and no support.

“I was just wiped as if nothing happened. It was a minor incident and get over it, get on with your life. Hope your son doesn’t remember,” Mr Felton said.

Eventually in 2003, Mr Felton returned to the hospital for answers – walking in to the same staff member’s office.

“(I) stood in front of him,” he said.

“He was typing at the time and he just looked up at me and said ‘yes, what do you want?’ And I just said ‘I’m the little boy that wouldn’t remember’.”

Mr Felton asked if his perpetrator was still working in the health system, or if there had been an investigation, but the staff member didn’t answer and simply “passed the buck” to another staffer – who also refused to answer his questions.

After that, Mr Felton “went completely off the rails” – living homeless on the streets of London.

“If I’d received the help I’d asked for in 1989 and 2003, I don’t think I would have been this broken person,” he said.

He returned again to Launceston and tried to raise a complaint, but was told by the director he’d missed the time period for lodging a complaint, and that he should “get over it and move on with your life”.

Later, Mr Felton heard about a podcast – The Nurse – which revealed the extent of abuse by another paedophile nurse at the hospital, the now-deceased James Geoffrey Griffin.

Counsel assisting the commission, Elizabeth Bennett SC, said the hospital had in fact investigated the 1989 incident, but said the perpetrator, George*, had denied it, there was no evidence, and that Mr Felton’s memory was likely faulty.

But Mr Felton said he remembered everything.

“I can remember every little detail of that night, and that night changed my life,” he said.

He became emotional as he implored other victims to come forward rather than remain silent.

“Every victim needs to come forward so we can weed out these parasites,” he said.

“If this saves one kid from getting hurt, it’s worth every ounce of pain and anger.

“Every child has a soul and I had my soul torn out … we need to weed out and clean out these filthy rock spiders.”

Launceston City

The commission of inquiry has begun two weeks of hearings in Launceston, which will examine the hospital and its responses to child sexual abuse.

It will also examine how Griffin and other abusers were able to harm children in the hospital’s care over decades.

Ms Bennett said the Launceston hearings were expected to be “gruelling” for victim-survivors.

“This is not a witch hunt. We are genuinely seeking to understand what happened, what went wrong, and what can be done better.”

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Originally published as Child abuse material found on James Griffin’s computer two decades before he was charged