Jim Goodwin: abuse survivor calls for police to investigate alleged perpetrators following Royal Commission of Inquiry report release

Survivors want police action following yesterday's damning abuse in care report.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry estimates about 200,000 people were neglected and abused in state and faith based institutions between 1950 and 2019.

The Commission's made 138 recommendations - including redress, removing care from state hands, and police investigation.

Abuse survivor Jim Goodwin says there are several reasons police didn't act back then.

"In the early days, the cops weren't resourced to do it, they didn't know how to interview people for sexual offending, they didn't know how to interview survivors - they're much better at it now - and survivors didn't come forward."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. Now, one of the questions now that the abuse
and care reporters out is will the perpetrators in that
in that report be held to account. The three thousand
page report released yesterday detailed countless allegations of, among other things, abuse, neglect,
and sex trafficking that was carried out against people, young people, kids,
in state and religious care. Now, Jim Goodwin is an
abuse survivor who was on the Royal Commissioned Survivor Advisory Group,

(00:22):
and he's with me. Now, Hey, Jim, Hi, Heather, do
you want the police to investigate and charge alleged perpetrators?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh? Yes, absolutely?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Are they still alive?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Are some of them? Are? Some of them? Are?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
What proportion do you reckon are?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh, Heather, I would have no idea.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Are we talking a majority? Maybe half or just a handful?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
I have no idea. Nineteen fifty to nineteen ninety nine. Obviously.
The other thing is here the abuse has continued since
nineteen ninety nine. It's still going on, so those ones
are mostly be still.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Why haven't Why haven't these people been chased by the
cops yet?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Lots of reasons. In the early days the cops went
resourced to do it. They didn't know how to interview
people for sexual offending. They didn't know how to interview survivors,
so much better at it now. Survivors didn't come forward
a whole lot of reasons.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, And this is one of the things that we've
heard is that even if given the opportunity, a lot
of survivors wouldn't talk to police because they don't trust police.
Do you think that they would? Did you think that's
an ongoing problem?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
It is an ongoing problem. It's getting better. The police
are doing a much better job now than they were
even five years ago. But you know, a lot of
survivors don't trust authority at all.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Would you talk to police about your abuse?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I did? I already have what happened. So they interviewed
alleged perpetrators and decided not to proceed because they felt
that the perpetrators would invoke I think it's a section
in the Crimes Act saying it was too long since a.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Statute of limitations, Like how do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Are okay? I mean, we gave the perpetrators a pretty
good rattle up. You know, they were interviewed by detectives
and they layered up pretty quickly. So, yeah, they know
who they are and they know what they did.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Jim, on the subject of redress, which is obviously going
to happen, the government's made that pretty clear. Do you
think that. Do you think that survivors should have money
given to them directly as compost?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yes, how much it depends on the nature of the offense.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Would you think in some cases, I mean, Sony Cooper
was talking to us the lawyer yesterday about potentially up
to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Would that be absolutely absolutely for some people.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Hey, Jim, thank you very much. I really appreciate you
talking about it. Mate. That's Jim Goodwin, who is abuse survivor.
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