The family of a boy who was allegedly molested by a staff member at a Catholic school in Sydney's south-west was asked to pay thousands of dollars in school fees after the child left the institution, according to evidence before a royal commission.
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The inquiry heard the alleged perpetrator was allowed to resign from the Mater Dei School for children with intellectual disabilities, despite being suspected of sexually abusing two other students in his care.
Evidence before the commission is that the staff member, given the pseudonym CID, raped a 14-year-old girl, shared his bed with a teenage boy and sexually molested an eight-year-old boy with Down syndrome.
All the students were boarding at the college in 1990s, according to evidence before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
A letter tendered in evidence shows debt collectors employed by Mater Dei School approached the foster mother of the child with Down syndrome with a demand for $7434.84 in unpaid school fees and associated legal costs.
In a 2004 letter to the school's board, the woman said the alleged abuse had caused the boy "to regress by several years, he lost his speech, confidence and trust".
Documents tendered to the royal commission show the woman reported the allegation to the Department of Family and Community Services in 1990 with a summary stating the matter "should be referred to school authorities".
Former principal Suzanne Dixon told the inquiry she was unaware of the allegation involving the child and the school had no record of it.
Ms Dixon, principal of the Camden school between 1991 and 2000, told the inquiry she was aware of allegations regarding CID and two other teenage students in his care, given the pseudonyms CIL and CIB.
The inquiry heard she asked CID to resign rather than sack him.
"I'd sought legal advice," she said. "This seemed to be a very expeditious way of him getting out ... I'd lost confidence in him as a staff member."
Ms Dixon told the commission she could not recall giving him a reference but agreed it might have been easier for him to gain work elsewhere with a resignation rather than a termination on his employment records.
Evidence before the commission is that CID left Australia for Britain in July 1991 and has not returned.
The hearing into disability support organisations before Justice Jennifer Coate has adjourned with a report to be handed down at a later date.
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