A hospital volunteer who allegedly molested a 12-year-old patient was terminated from his role without the claims being recorded on his employment file, allowing him continued access to children, a royal commission has heard.
John de Campo, former chief executive of the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, agreed that volunteer Harry Pueschel could have kept working with children after sex abuse allegations surfaced.
He told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse he sacked Mr Pueschel in 1997 and police were informed when a former patient alleged she was sexually abused by the volunteer as a child in 1981.
Dr de Campo described his management of the case as "a failing of mine". He agreed he did not put the allegations to Mr Pueschel or record them on his termination letter.
Counsel assisting the royal commission Hayley Bennett said: "There's no indication (in the termination letter) that this person was the subject of very serious allegations in relation to child sexual abuse."
"Yes that's right," Dr de Campo replied.
Dr Bennett asked whether the manner of Mr Pueschel's termination "left it open for (him) to work with children elsewhere".
"That's possible, I think, yes," Dr de Campo responded.
The commission heard evidence that Mr Pueschel, now deceased, continued to do volunteer work for the hospital after his sacking and gained access to a ward.
A 1998 police report about Mr Pueschel, tendered in evidence, noted: "Given that this person has been at the hospital for many years, the potential for numerous victims is high."
Dr de Campo told the royal commission the hospital did not conduct its own investigation into whether other children were abused by Mr Pueschel at the time the former patient complained.
"That was, from our perspective, a police matter," he said.
The commission heard Dr de Campo wrote to the complainant, given the pseudonym AWI, informing her he did not believe "there is any possibility of court action" against Mr Pueschel.
He agreed in evidence that as a doctor he was not in a position to give legal advice.
AWI told the commission she did not "think the RCHM was taking my complaints seriously" when she wrote to the hospital in 1997.
Now 46, she told the commission she was admitted to the hospital for treatment of asthma and was allegedly repeatedly abused by Mr Pueschel in a playroom. She said she was punished by staff for trying to hide from Mr Pueschel and was scolded for attempting to take her own life as a result of the alleged abuse.
"I wanted to die," she said. "One day I obtained scissors and I tried to cut my wrists in the bedpan room.
"A nurse found me and scolded me. I think she said something to the effect of, 'What are you doing you silly girl – playing tick tack toe on yourself?'."
AWI, now an international trade consultant, told the commission she attempted to report the alleged abuse to the hospital in 1984 when she was aged about 16 but the staff member who took her call did not believe her.
The royal commission's public hearing is examining the response of health care regulators and providers into allegations of child sexual abuse. The hearing, before Justice Peter McClellan,continues.
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