An 11-year-old referred to a psychologist was sexually abused in sessions that were supposed to be “play therapy”, an inquiry has heard.
The royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse has started hearings into allegations of child sex abuse at public hospitals and private practices in New South Wales and Victoria.
Allegations of multiple boys being masturbated by a doctor in northern Sydney, of a boy being abused by a psychologist at Royal North Shore hospital and of a girl being abused by a volunteer at Royal Children’s hospital in Melbourne were laid out by counsel assisting the commission, Hayley Bennett, in her opening address.
Terence Kirkpatrick was 11 years old when he was referred to a psychologist because of his asthma, believed at the time to be psychosomatic. He was referred to Stuart Frank Simpson at the Cummins Unit at the Royal North Shore hospital in 1967.
He was made to dress up, be photographed and perform oral sex while being treated with “play therapy”, the commission will hear. Kirkpatrick will allege he was abused five times and Bennett revealed the commission has been unable to find any records that Simpson had any health qualifications. He is believed to be dead.
“His father attempted to report the abuse to the Cummins Unit by telephone, as well as attending in person to do so. However nothing came of it,” Bennett said.
Another doctor who worked at St Ives Practice, as well as occasionally at the Royal North Shore hospital, Dr John Phillip Rolleston, is accused of abusing at least seven patients when they were young boys, masturbating them on various occasions and telling at least two it was so he could run tests to do with their cold or flu.
One victim, speaking under the pseudonym AWA, was 15 in 1974 when he was taken to Rolleston and he masturbated him to “get some liquid from his penis”.
“The first time he was abused he felt naive and unaware of what was happening. However after the third occasion he knew that what Rolleston was doing was not right and never went back,” Bennett told the commission.
A year later AWA discovered his younger brother had also been abused by the doctor and he tried to tell several health practitioners including the father of a friend and a friend who was a nurse. Nothing was done.
In 1986 Rolleston was convicted in the NSW district court of 12 counts of issuing false documents. The offences are commonly known as medifraud. He was fined $17,000 and sentenced to a year of prison, but ultimately released on a five-year good behaviour bond.
A year later the Medical Tribunal of NSW found him guilty of professional conduct on basis of the medifraud convictions and removed him from the register of medical practitioners.
Within three years Rolleston had successfully applied to have his name restored but the conditions were he could only practice in hospitals and did not have the right to a private practice for two years.
In 2009 he was charged with 11 accounts of indecent assault against four males between 11 and 15 years of age in 1970s.
He stood trial in 2011 and was convicted of 10 of the 11 charges and remains in jail. In 2013 his registration was cancelled. Rolleston will be able to reapply for registration in four years.
The hearing continues.
