[h=1]NSW police protects alleged Tweed Heads paedophile ring[/h]I first heard about Gary Willis when I was attending a local high school in the late 1980s. I grew up hearing horrifying stories of this teacher allegedly abusing young disabled children at three local primary schools. Indeed, Gary Willis allegedly sexually, physically and psychologically abused children from the homes of four different family friends.
So, I lodged a complaint against Gary Willis, who was then teaching at Centaur Primary School. I alleged that Gary Willis had exhibited inappropriate behaviour toward students at three schools, raising concerns about the protection of Centaur children. I also named other teachers whom parents and staff had also alleged were paedophiles.
An EPAC Child Protection Investigator, Sandra Cameron, informed me that the NSW Education Department held a considerable number of files containing abuse allegations against teacher Gary Willis, including numerous written complaints by teachers. Ms Cameron said that much of the information was horrendous and allegedly of a criminal nature and that it had subsequently been turned over to the police.
On 3 November, 2004, I received a phone call from Inspector Bob Sullivan.
During this call, Inspector Sullivan made what I allege are some startling and disturbing statements:
- He criticised victims, parents and witnesses for expecting me to help them.
- He described alleged serial paedophile Gary Willis as a “poor bloke” and the victim of a “witch hunt”.
- He said there was no such thing as justice, and that achieving justice in this matter was not the aim of the police;
- He accused me of fabricating witness letters, including a hand-written complaint personally submitted to the Education Department by a teacher aide some 14 years previous.
- He said that NSW police have no record of any complaints against Gary Willis made by victims. When I challenged this by saying that two Tweed Heads detectives had told me the opposite, Inspector Sullivan contradicted himself by saying that police had investigated a number of complaints against Gary Willis, but that none of these had been substantiated. Then, he contradicted himself again, saying: “action was taken in 1993”.
- He said there was no evidence of child abuse — just “innuendo and rumour”.
- He said he was not prepared to launch a proactive investigation into Gary Willis, as the victims probably would prefer to forget the past and get on with their lives. When I suggested he was pre-empting their reaction and added that many witnesses had been threatened and bribed into silence, and maybe they would feel safe and relieved talking to the police in such a way, Bob Sullivan asked: “Mrs Barnett, have you ever been the victim of a sexual assault?”
- He said police were certainly not interested in the “minor assaults” listed.
- He said that if Y’s case went to court, witnesses certainly could not be subpoenaed to testify and that only a Royal Commission had the power to interview reluctant witnesses.
- He stated that Y had the best chance of charging Gary Willis, but that if her letter was the extent of her language ability, she would get nowhere and therefore there’s no point in her pursuing the matter.
- He concentrated on just one of the alleged paedophiles, Gary Willis, and refused to acknowledge allegations against other named teachers and DOCS workers.
- He stated that it was not a crime for Gary Willis to constantly call an Aboriginal child “coon”, “nigger” and “the black snake”.
- He stated that he was immediately returning the file to the Education Department and closing the investigation, without contacting any other people or witnesses named in the file.