James Geoffrey Griffin's direct manager at the Launceston General Hospital for 11 years could not explain why he was still allowed to work with children despite repeated professional boundary breaches.
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Instead, former ward 4K unit manager Sonja Leonard hoped an "education and redirection" approach would change Griffin's behaviour with children, even after nine years of consistent complaints.
Ms Leonard took on the role in 2008, and in just one month in 2009 there were three professional boundary issues regarding Griffin: first by staying with a child against her care plan, another by cuddling a child and the third by giving his mobile number to a patient.
He was then stopped from "giving away" a former patient at a wedding when concerns were raised.
Later that year, the mother of a patient told Ms Leonard that Griffin was "a womaniser and a sleaze", and that "you've got men working here looking after children, bad things happen, we all know that".
Ms Leonard did not believe this was directly related to Griffin.
She was questioned about Griffin's regular practice of hugging children on the ward and calling them names like "babe", "baby" and "princess".
She believed she told him to stop doing that in about 2015, but could not recall specific details. He continued doing it, resulting in a complaint from a child patient in 2017.
Ms Leonard said Griffin knew a lot of people in the community, and she interpreted the hugs to be as a result of these relationships.
"When I observe Mr Griffin, these hugs were in public in open ward areas with staff present, with parents present, and all of those people responded positively, not negatively around those hugs," she said.
"Whilst I consider it to be inappropriate and unprofessional, it seemed to be well received by those people."
Griffin was charged with numerous child sex offences in 2019. There have been allegations he sexually abused children in the ward.
In around 2013 or 2014, Griffin brought a child alone to see Ms Leonard while on holiday in Bridport. She described their visit as "unremarkable", but unusual given Griffin's own children were not present.
The child later alleged Griffin had persistently sexually abused her.
Why wasn't action taken?
Ms Leonard was asked why the quick succession of complaints in 2009 did not prompt further action, or the removal of Griffin from the paediatric ward.
"To be honest, there was a lot going on in 4K at that time," she said, referring to a no confidence vote in her among staff.
Griffin received multiple notices regarding his breaches of professional boundaries over the years, directing him to comply, or they would be escalated.
He did not comply, but none were escalated.
The final one, in 2017, warned him that external agencies had been made aware of the concern.
Counsel assisting Elizabeth Bennett SC suggested it was abundantly clear - after nine years - that Griffin was not going to comply with professional boundary requests.
Ms Leonard responded: "I always thought that education and redirection would change that behaviour."
Ms Bennett questioned at what stage someone should be moved away from children.
"I'm not sure of the answer to that question," Ms Leonard said.
She conceded there was a culture of keeping things "in house" in the ward and not involving external agencies, including the medical regulator AHPRA.
Sonja Leonard says she was also groomed by Griffin
Ms Leonard concedes she had a difficult time managing ward 4K, but put some of the blame on her own staff.
Previous hearings have heard complaints about Ms Leonard's management style and a lack of confidence that she would handle complaints appropriately, including in regards to Griffin.
She regretted the way in which a 2017 conduct complaint from nurse Will Gordon was handled, which involved allegations of inappropriate comments by Griffin towards 14-year-old girls. He was cleared, and even received a positive response.
Ms Leonard said she also felt groomed by Griffin.
"I feel the challenges of coming into the nurse unit manager role, and learning a new role, and the complexities that presented themselves and the culture and the conflict and the undermining that was going on in the ward at the time unfortunately were a perfect storm for Mr Griffin to take advantage of in my opinion," she said.
"I had no knowledge or training of grooming until 2020.
"I feel deep, deep, deeply that we were deceived, we were manipulated and we were sold a version of Mr Griffin he wanted us to believe."
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