VCAT: Man loses bid to bypass Working with Children’s check due to decades-old offending
A man who wants to play the tuba in a brass band can’t because he was convicted of masturbating in front of schoolgirls three decades ago.
A man who wants to play the tuba in a brass band can’t because he was convicted of masturbating in front of schoolgirls three decades ago.
Paul Edwards, 58, applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to review a decision made by the secretaryof government services to refuse him a Working With Children Check exclusion.
Edwards was convicted of wilful and obscene exposure in public after three separate incidents in 1991. In each instance,Edwards, then aged 23-24, stood in his front yard, exposed himself and masturbated.
He was seen by four victims, including three high school-aged children.
In May 1991, Edwards was handed a 14-day suspended sentence, and in April 1992, he was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order, including 200 hours of unpaid work.
Edwards has not committed any other offences for 34 years and argued at a hearing on December 2 he no longer posed any risk, was “no longer the same person”, and deserved a second chance.
On December 10, VCAT member Elisabeth Wentworth upheld the secretary’s decision.
The tribunal was told Edwards struggled to find work because employers ask for a WWCC clearance, “even when the job has little if anything to do with children”, and could no longer play in brass bands, nor volunteer at his church.
Ms Wentworth noted playing in a brass band was important to Edwards — who played Double B Flat bass and tuba and won a national title in his youth.
A WWCC was “apparently” required for him to continue to play in the bands he was involved in, she said.
It was also noted Edwards “does not expressly wish to engage in child-related work. He just wants work”.
Ms Wentworth said the passage of time was just one factor in her assessment.
Edwards’ offending was “serious and troubling”, she said, with two of the victims, girls aged 15 and 17, “in school uniform” on their way to catch a school bus. Another victim, a 28-year-old woman walking her dog, said she was “offended and scared” by Edwards’ actions.
The fourth victim was a 16-year-old girl on her bicycle, who Edwards “whistled to” as she rode past.
Ms Wentworth described Edwards’ explanations to police at the time as “bizarre”, including that “he was lonely” and “hoped someone would respond and engage in sexual activities with him”.
Edwards told a psychiatrist in 2018 his “target age” was women aged 18-24.
That was terminology Ms Wentworth found worrying and said showed “distorted thinking”, although Edwards agreed at the hearing that “having any target age at all was problematic”.
However, “while he may not have targeted children, he agreed at the hearing that he had not cared if children saw him”, Ms Wentworth said, noting Edwards had “hoped” the two schoolgirls were year 12.
Another factor was that Edwards admitted to a psychiatrist in 1991 that he had exposed himself to “30 or 40 other females” over “two to three years”.
That psychiatrist later wrote that Edwards’ “main problem is a defect in conscience and regard for other people”, and “real motivation for recovery seems so far lacking”.
Ms Wentworth said that was the closest to a “plausible explanation” for Edwards’ behaviour.
“My concern is that Mr Edwards has not, even now, overcome some of those deficits,” she wrote.
Character references were submitted on Edwards’ behalf, including from his sister and mother, but Ms Wentworth said the “paramount consideration” under the legislation was protecting children.
Ms Wentworth said she could “not be satisfied that Mr Edwards would not pose an unjustifiable risk to the safety of children” and refused the application.
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Originally published as VCAT: Man loses bid to bypass Working with Children’s check due to decades-old offending
