The 15-year fight to bring an accused childcare paedophile to justice has left Sydney parents Jacqui* and Rachel* bankrupt, their children retraumatised and the families distrustful of the judicial system.
The childcare centre hired its own investigator and child protection teams closed the reports, while criminal charges were dropped at the eleventh hour. Later, a successful civil lawsuit was overturned on appeal, leaving the women and their children still fighting for justice.
Now, with the support of Greens MP Sue Higginson, they’re seeking government recognition for systemic failures, as well as ex gratia payments from the government, which are made in special circumstances.
Jacqui and Rachel’s daughters Julia* and Rose* were allegedly sexually assaulted at Footprints childcare centre in Sydney’s south by volunteer Rodney Raymond Bird, who co-owned the facility with his daughter, who was the director. The centre has since been sold, and the families cannot be identified for legal reasons.
In 2015, the families lodged a civil claim, suing the centre for negligence and vicarious liability. They were awarded a total of $2 million in damages in 2020, with the court finding, on the balance of probabilities, the two girls were abused by Bird.
However, two years later, that ruling was overturned on appeal; Rachel was forced back into mediation, while Jacqui was advised to seek another trial and ordered to pay the centre’s legal costs.
“The perpetrator’s legal firm sent us a bill for almost a million dollars,” Jacqui said.
“How do you explain to your teenage daughter that she might lose her home to the man who sexually assaulted her?”
In yet another blow, the families learnt this year from questions lodged in parliament by Higginson that Bird’s electronic devices were never seized or investigated, video from the childcare centre was never obtained and that the only evidence police had relied upon was the children’s testimony.
Police declined to reopen the investigation due to the lack of new evidence, the passage of time and Bird’s death.
The mothers have never stopped fighting for change. They gave extensive evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which led to legislative reform.
On Wednesday, Higginson is expected to introduce a notice of motion calling on the government to acknowledge the failings of the institutions and systems that let them down; recognise the damage of denying justice to the children; and provide the families with ex gratia payments.