How Could You? Hall of Shame-Steven Andrew Larkins, Australian CPS CEO UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Newcastle, Australia, former chief executive of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services, Steven Andrew Larkins, 45, “has pleaded not guilty to child sex offences allegedly committed in the Hunter Valley.”
“Larkins was stood down as CEO of the Hunter organisation last year, after being charged with 20 offences.
They include aggravated indecent assault, possessing child pornography and forgery.
Larkins faced Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday and entered not guilty pleas to two counts of aggravated indecent assault against children under the age of 16.
The court was told discussions are continuing in relation to the remaining charges and there could be further progress ahead of a four-day hearing scheduled for June.
The court heard the prosecution could potentially call 12 witnesses to give evidence at that hearing.
The matter will be mentioned again in March.
Larkins remains free on bail, but with strict conditions. ”
Aboriginal advocate pleads not guilty to child sex
[Australia Broadcasting Company 2/8/12]
September 2011
From Former Aboriginal services chief deemed ‘risk’ to children in 2003 [Newcastle Herald 9/1/11 by Stephen Ryan],”THE former chief executive officer of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services was deemed a “medium risk” to children in 2003, but continued to work with minors and deceive a number of organisations by forging documents, Newcastle Local Court heard yesterday.
Steven Andrew Larkins, 45, was accused of molesting an 11-year-old boy while he was a scout master with the 2nd Newcastle Scout Group in 1997, a police statement said.
Mr Larkins denied the allegations, but he was served with an apprehended violence order and told that he would receive a summons for a charge of aggravated indecent assault. The case never proceeded to trial.
When mandatory child protection checks came into effect in 2001, Mr Larkins submitted his application with the Department of Community Services’ screening unit in 2003, the statement said.
A background check on Mr Larkins received a “hit” and he was told he was a “medium risk” and was not cleared to work unsupervised with children.
Mr Larkins never disclosed this to the board or other managers at Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services, but he made two attempts to have his classification reviewed, the statement said.
In those applications he allegedly made fraudulent claims such as “That on no occasion have I been approached by the NSW Police to be charged or to appear in court on any charge of any kind” and “I am not the person with this record”.
He is also accused of creating a document that stated he had clearance to work with children and placed it with his personnel file, the statement said.
Mr Larkins also prepared two statutory declarations that stated he had never appeared “in court in relation to any charge made on me” and another stating that he had no contact with children in his role as chief executive officer.
Police alleged that both claims were false.”
“Mr Larkins was arrested yesterday and charged with 17 offences in addition to charges of possessing child pornography that he has been on bail for since April.
Police have subsequently found 64 child pornography images on computers and other devices that were seized from Mr Larkins’ Mayfield home, a police statement said.”
April 2011
From Child porn ‘found on lost hard drive’ [Newcastle Herald 4/28/11 by Stephen Ryan], ”
A document tendered to the court stated that police and DOCS “hold deep concerns that Mr Larkins may still have contact with these children”.
Mr Larkins told a witness that he’d misplaced a portable hard drive and was looking for it about a week before the witness found a device in one of the organisation’s vehicles, a police statement said.
When the employee inserted the drive into a computer to identify its owner, they allegedly found Mr Larkins’s resume and other files as well as videos and images with names such as “2 15 old boys have sex all night”.
The witness alerted a manager and then police.
Fifty-one video files were found on the hard drive with police rating the material at seven out of 10 on a scale used to classify child pornography.
A rating of 10 is in the worst category.”
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Another shocking case where bail is granted after repeated, serious allegations. It doesn’t sound like there are good background checks in place for employees of CPS. If a “hit” of medium risk comes back from the screen, do they just take the applicant at his word for the explanation?
Update: “A Newcastle man, once applauded by Governments for his child protection work, has admitted possessing child pornography and forging documents to keep his job.
Former Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services CEO Steven Andrew Larkins was a leading child protection advocate.
His standing was so high, both the State and Federal Governments sought input from the 45-year-old through various advisory roles.
That changed last year when a co-worker found pornographic images of children on a computer thumb drive.
Larkins has pleaded guilty pleas to four counts of possessing child pornography and three counts of making or using false documents, enabling him to pass working with children checks.
Three charges of possessing child pornography have been withdrawn, while he is yet to enter pleas to a further seven fraud and forgery offences.
In addition he has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated indecent assault of a child.
A hearing on those matter is scheduled for June.”
Children’s advocate pleads guilty to possessing child porn
[Australian Broadcasting Company 4/30/12]
Update 2: “A Newcastle man who advised Governments on child protection has today been jailed for a range of child sex offences.
The former CEO of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services Steven Andrew Larkins, pleaded guilty to nine offences including producing and possessing child pornography fraud and the aggravated indecent assault of two boys aged 11 and 12.
The 46 year old has worked in advisory roles on child protection issues for both the NSW and Federal Governments.
Larkins was so revered in New South Wales he was on expert panel for the Government’s ‘Keep them Safe’ reforms, but Newcastle Local Court heard the former Scout leader was secretly attracted to young boys.
The court heard the Department of Community Services was aware of a complaint by one of his victims in 1997.
Larkins has since admitted to falsifying working with children checks to keep his job.
Today he showed little emotion while being sentenced to a minimum 19 months jail.
Magistrate Ian Cheetham acknowledged he had shown some remorse but doubled that he was no longer attracted to young boys.
Larkins will be eligible for parole in February 2014.”
19 months is a travesty!
Update 3:“
ONE of the state’s worst paedophiles was able to access children by using a uniform and an ID tag from an Aboriginal foster child agency which employed a child abuser as its chief executive for nearly 10 years, the Herald has learned.
The connection has raised fears a paedophile ring may have been operating in the Hunter and Newcastle areas in the 2000s.
Police have been investigating how a shirt and ID tag from the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services, a not for profit agency, were obtained by the paedophile foster carer Robert Holland.
Holland had them as part of his cover to access vulnerable and troubled children in the 2000s.
He died in jail in 2009 after being convicted of dozens of paedophile offences relating to children placed in his care by the courts and the state government.
The investigation into the link with Holland was sparked after the Children’s Services chief executive, Steven Andrew Larkins, was convicted this year on charges of abusing two boys in the 1990s and of possessing child pornography and fraud offences.
Larkins had been in the senior management role at the children’s services agency for almost a decade and had been given parental responsibility for the Aboriginal children, which enabled him to take them to his home.
Yesterday, the new HACS chief executive, Terry Chenery, confirmed police had been investigating a potential connection between Larkins and the uniform and ID tag which Holland had used.
”From what I know he [Holland] was not connected and never has been but [he] somehow managed to get some of our clothing and a HACS tag that you attached,” Mr Chenery said.
”It [a connection to Larkins] is possible but there’s no indication that he [Holland] ever worked or had an affiliation with us.”
Holland was able to access the children after becoming a foster carer and acting as a support person at the courts and at a home for troubled boys.
He was charged in 2007 with nearly 100 offences against 19 then-teenagers between 1969 and 2006. Some of the victims were children who had been put in his temporary foster care by the Department of Community Services or the courts.
Police said at the time of Holland’s arrest the Department of Community Services had granted the care of many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children to the accused from the 1980s onwards.
The department this week said it could not comment on the matter as it was not involved in ”bailing children” to individuals from the Children’s Court.
Last month, Larkins was convicted and sentenced to at least nine months in jail for four counts of possessing child abuse material. He was given a further 12-month minimum sentence for forging the working with children documents to obtain his $86,000-a-year position and for lying in a statutory declaration, amounting to a total non-parole period of 19 months.
The sentence has been stayed pending an appeal, although Larkins is not contesting the three-year good behaviour bond handed down for the assaults on the two boys. The appeal will be mentioned in the Newcastle District Court on November 15.”
Paedophiles may have acted as carers
[The Sydney Morning Herald 10/4/12 by Rory Callinan]
“Police say there is no evidence of a paedophile ring within part of the Hunter Valley’s foster care sector, after ruling out a criminal link between two convicted paedophiles.
Police say it is unclear how Holland had possession of a HACS uniform during his foster caring days.
The ABC has been told Larkins knew Holland, but disliked him.
Police investigated and say they could not substantiate any criminal links between the pair.”
Police say no evidence of foster care paedophile ring
[Australian Broadcasting Company News 10/4/12]
Update 4:
“By 2010, serious child sexual abuse allegations involving Steven Larkins were known to dozens of people across the Hunter region, including police, parents and senior figures in the scouts movement.
However, thanks to a combination of bureaucratic bungling, outdated protocols and rat cunning, the former scout group leader managed not only to groom a 17-year-old boy, but to become the teenagers’ foster carer, the royal commission has been told.
On its third day of Sydney hearings, the commission heard evidence from Ian Eggins, a caseworker at the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Service, where Larkins had been installed as chief executive after being quietly shunted from the Stockton scout group.
”They would go tenpin bowling together and Steve would arrange other workers to pick A.D. up so he could have contact with them.”
Mr Eggins said that he thought this and other inappropriate behaviour ”a bit strange”.
However, he was told by his direct manager Ted Lancaster not to worry.
”Ted said to me ‘you probably wouldn’t have to report it as it’s second-hand information,’ ” Mr Eggins said.
Another manager reportedly said ”oh, that’s a bit strange” but left it at that.
Incredibly, there was a similarly muted reaction from the service’s staff, and its management committee, when Larkins sought to become the foster carer for A.D.
”I assumed he knew what he was talking about,” chair of the management committee Karen Elphick said of the secret meeting Larkins called to tell her and the other committee members of his plan to foster A.D.
They expressed reservations but signed the forms.
Officers from the Department of Community Services also signed off on Larkins’ plan, having already applied to the Children’s Court for Larkins to be given parental responsibility of children at the service.
The present chief executive of Community Services, Maree Walk, said that this reflected the practice of the day in which principal officers of out-of-home care organisations, such as Larkins, would be allocated parental responsibility if they were deemed suitable.
This was particularly the case for Aboriginal organisations.
Ms Walk conceded that departmental officers, while following protocol, ”did not do additional checks on that particular person to see if he was a suitable officer”.
She emphasised that the system by which principal officers were given custody of children had been tightened in the past two years.
The hearing continues.”
Scout leader ‘groomed’ boy and became foster carer
[Brisbane Times 9/19/13 by Paul Bibby]
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