The Sunday Sun newspaper article conclusively shows that Minister
Warner had firsthand knowledge of the abuse going on at the John Oxley Youth
Detention Centre from as early as 1 October 1989 when Opposition Spokesman
for Family Services.
The Sunday Sun newspaper article conclusively shows that Minister
Warner had firsthand knowledge of the abuse going on at the John Oxley Youth
Detention Centre from as early as 1 October 1989 when Opposition Spokesman
for Family Services.
Within weeks of becoming Minister, she closed the Heiner Inquiry and, together with her Cabinet colleagues, ordered the evidence shredded. The abuse was then covered up for nine years. Ms Warner when interviewed by Nine Network for "Sunday" reporter Mr Paul Ransley in late 1998 told him that she had no idea about the abuse, and that she deliberately didn't want to know what was in the Heiner Inquiry documents.
The Forde Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions in its Report at page 173 said this about the handcuffing abuse:
"That as more than 12 months have elapsed since the date of the commission of the offence, no prosecution for such breach can now be made."
It is incontestable that the Goss Cabinet deliberately shredded evidence of criminal conduct. In shredding the evidence it covered it up. Had it protected the evidence as the law required, charges could have been laid in early 1990, and justice done.
Not only that, but young Aboriginal Bobby Yarre would not have been able to hang himself in December 1998 from the grills in his cell - talked about in the Heiner documents.