‘No excuse’: Griffin’s victim-survivor Tiffany Skeggs let down by the child safety system

“I had made police aware … to quote his words, ‘I’ll f … ing kill myself before I go to prison’. And they still released him.” VIDEO: Griffin victim fears for future >>>

TIFFANY Skeggs had warned police Jim Griffin planned to kill himself before he’d ever go to jail.

But despite the paedophile confessing to a number of his crimes, he was released on bail – dying by suicide before his victim-survivors ever saw justice.

Ms Skeggs was sexually abused by Griffin – who was the first aid officer at her netball centre – for years from the age of 12.

She’d finally come forward to police – a profoundly traumatic process she said cost her “everything”.

But despite her bravery, Griffin was never brought to justice for the abuse he inflicted upon her and countless others.

“I cannot for the life of me fathom how anyone, whether it was the initial police bail or the subsequent court bailing, could deem that he was safe to return to the community, that he didn’t pose a risk to the community or to children or his accusers. And more to the point, that he didn’t pose a risk to himself.” Ms Skeggs told the child sexual abuse commission of inquiry on Thursday.

“I had made police aware, I had given the evidence of him stating that, to quote his words, ‘I’ll f … ing kill myself before I go to prison’. And they still released him.”

Tiffany Skeggs was abused by nurse James Geoffrey Griffin after she was groomed at a netball club where Griffin was the first aid officer.

Ms Skeggs told the commission about how she’d been “lured” in by Griffin’s “textbook perfect” grooming processes when she was a young and talented netball player.

“I can’t describe or bring justice to the aura that he had about him. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. There was no person in the world that would show you that much attention or constantly express how proud they were of you or how amazing you were, and he made it seem like I was the only person on Earth,” she said.

“I saw him as a hero I guess. It pains me to admit that.

“He had fully groomed me to believe that I loved him and that I had to protect him.”

Griffin told Ms Skeggs that they’d both be “destroyed” if she ever revealed his abuse, and distanced her from her family, including her beloved grandmother.

She believed she was “owned by him” and “belonged to him as his possession”, with Griffin controlling every aspect of her life, down to how she wore her hair and the way she drank her coffee.

When she was contacted by Child Safety Services, who told her it was her responsibility to stop the “inappropriate” behaviour that had been identified, like sitting on Griffin’s knee at netball games, the then Grade 10 student went “immediately fearful and protective”.

“Like holy s..t this is going to destroy me, which is what he always had me believe,” Ms Skeggs said.

She then called Griffin to warn him.

“He thanked me for making the call, told me to make sure I don’t say another word, and that he would deal with it – that he works with Child Protection frequently and they’ll believe anything he tells them.”

Ms Skeggs said there was no excuse for those in power who had been informed Griffin was a paedophile, years before he was charged, not to have taken any action.

“The people that ultimately held the responsibility to keep myself and other children safe, there’s no excuse in the world that can justify them not doing their job,” she said.

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