A survivor of childhood sexual abuse by former ACT elite junior cricket coach Ian King is suing Cricket ACT and Cricket Australia for the disastrous fallout of his abuse, attorneys for the person have confirmed.
Key factors:
- A survivor of sexual abuse by paedophile coach Ian King has sued Cricket Australia and Cricket ACT
- A colleague of King informed police Cricket ACT knew the coach ‘appreciated little boys’ early in his 10-year teaching stint
- Lawyers say dozens of victims have been denied compensation for abuse
On Friday, Arnold Thomas and Becker Lawyers issued a writ in Melbourne’s Supreme Court, looking for damages and compensation after the person was “robbed” of his childhood and suffered “significant mental health disorders which have impacted his life and career prospects.”
The plaintiff, a member of elite ACT junior growth squads within the early Nineties and 13-years-old when King’s abuse of him started, reported the matter to police in 2006.
A outstanding side of the case is the invention of a police assertion given in 2006 by a training colleague of King’s, who confirmed that Cricket ACT was conscious of King’s fame as a sexual abuser when he commenced his decade-long stint teaching ACT junior groups.
In the assertion, seen by ABC Sport, former ACT junior coach and group supervisor Ray Hatch informed police: “Within this first year that Ian was with ACTCA, rumours were circulating the Association that Ian liked little boys.”
“This information came from the interstate cricket community that Ian had come over from, I think it was Western Australia.”
“As a result of these rumours, Richard Done, who was the director of coaching ACTCA at this time, and I kept an eye on Ian’s interaction with the young children.”
“As far I knew everything was fine and there were no incidents with Ian.”
In actuality, King was a prolific abuser of boys in his elite ACT Under-17 and Under-19 squads within the decade following and is presently serving a 19-year jail sentence for a string of critical sexual offences towards boys he mentored within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties.
Now the cricket operations director of USA Cricket, Richard Done didn’t reply to interview requests from ABC Sport.
In the last decade earlier than his stint in Canberra, King had additionally coached elite Western Australian junior consultant groups. In the late Sixties, King loved a profitable however temporary profession as a quick bowler in Queensland’s Sheffield Shield group and was additionally an expert boxer.
‘His hopes and desires in cricket have been destroyed by this predator’
Arnold Thomas and Becker abuse lawyer Jodie Harris, who’s representing the sufferer, mentioned Cricket ACT (then the ACT Cricket Association) had data of King’s earlier offending earlier than participating him in positions the place he was in touch with youngsters, together with personal teaching classes and visits to the boys’ homes.
Harris mentioned the declare towards Cricket ACT and Cricket Australia alleged they “failed to protect the boys on a number of fronts”, not solely failing to hold out correct background checks, however failing to oversee King, failing to warn dad and mom that he was a hazard to youngsters and failing to develop “proper policies or procedures to ensure that children placed in his care were protected from his predatory behaviour.”
“As a consequence of these failures, our client was exposed to repeated abuse from this predator,” Harris mentioned.
“The abuse started when our client was around 13 years old.”
Harris mentioned her agency is aware of of “dozens of others who are considering taking action” over the matter and that historic sexual abuse of youngsters in elite junior cricket is an issue that won’t go away.
“Cricket Australia and the various State Associations are going to be forced to face up to their alleged failures to protect children,” Harris mentioned.
“The time has come for them to be held to account and for justice and fair compensation to be awarded to the survivors for the terrible damage that was done to them.
“What our consumer was subjected to as a younger boy and the influence it has had on his life is solely heartbreaking. As a consequence of the abuse he skilled, our consumer was robbed of a standard childhood and upbringing and subsequently suffered vital psychological well being problems which have impacted his life and profession prospects.”
“Cricket ought to be a secure and pleasing exercise for folks, particularly youngsters, so to listen to that abuse was so prevalent in these organisations is devastating. Our consumer had desires of a future in cricket. Those hopes and desires have been destroyed by this predator.”
‘What is evident is that it is Cricket ACT’s duty’
In recent years, Cricket Australia has lagged in its response to stories of historical sexual abuse of children in its elite junior pathways.
It was only on December 24, 2021 — in response to an ABC Sport investigation of former Australian Under-19s star Jamie Mitchell’s horrific experiences on an overseas tour — that CA made a commitment to join the National Redress Scheme in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The scheme was set up to offer survivors the chance to seek financial compensation for their abuse without the need for legal action, but payments are capped at $150,000 and survivors cannot make claims against institutions that haven’t joined the scheme.
In January, Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley told ABC Sport the governing body was “totally dedicated” to the scheme, adding: “I’m very involved to ensure that everybody who interacts with cricket is secure and feels secure.”
But at that time, Hockley said it was not Cricket Australia’s responsibility to compensate survivors of King’s sexual abuse in ACT representative squads, despite many of those players competing in national carnivals which were administered by Cricket Australia and part of CA’s pathway to senior national selection.
“I believe what is evident is that it is Cricket ACT’s duty,” Hockley said in January.
“We work carefully with our members on these points however it’s, in the end, their duty.”
Survivors of Ian King’s abuse left ‘penniless’ in compensation struggle
That “duty”, Cricket Australia said, rests with Cricket ACT as a result of CA’s “reverse umbrella” corporate structure, in which CA is owned by the state and territory associations and not vice versa.
But the reality of Australian cricket’s power structure and finances is something close to the opposite. Under CA’s “member distribution” process, in which it doles out the benefits of cricket’s TV rights billions, up to $130 million is handed out to the state and territory associations every year.
Cricket ACT’s 2020-21 annual report revealed that Cricket Australia had provided it with funding of more than $2.2 million, to go with ACT government grants of $567,000. Due to what Cricket ACT described as “tight fiscal controls and cautious administration of expenditure”, it posted an operating profit of $670,922.
Yet Cricket ACT has not joined the National Redress Scheme. In March 2021, survivors of King’s abuse told The Canberra Times they’d been left “penniless” of their quest for compensation, with as much as 15 survivors unsuccessfully making use of to Cricket ACT.
In a statement issued at the time, Cricket ACT recognised “the devastating and lasting influence that baby intercourse abuse can have on the lives of survivors and their family members”, but as yet, it has not budged in its stance and not a single survivor has been compensated for their abuse.
Asked in January if Cricket Australia’s hands-off approach to King’s offending would meet community expectations of the sport’s peak body, Nick Hockley said: “It’s one thing we’ll proceed to work [on] and talk about with Cricket ACT to ensure that they’re supported on this matter.”
At the time, Hockley also conceded that CA might need to take the lead from the AFL’s concussion fund and carve out a portion of its sizeable TV rights revenue to support the survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
“I believe it is one thing we have to proceed to take a look at and how the game responds in probably the most acceptable method,” Hockley mentioned.
Survivor of sexual abuse by paedophile coach Ian King sues Cricket Australia and Cricket ACT & More Latest News Update
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