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Robert Boost has spent his life running away — but around every corner for years was a "black cloud".
Key points:
- Robert Boost was allegedly sexually abused when he was a child, by someone who had befriended his family
- He has told a commission of inquiry he was groomed from about age 5, then regularly sexually abused between 9 and 12 years old
- He says there’s too much focus on protecting adults' feelings, at the expense of protecting children
Mr Boost is happily married and enjoys his work, but the black cloud is the impact child sexual abuse has had, and continues to have, on his life.
He gave evidence on Monday to the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.
Mr Boost told the commission he was five years old when his family migrated to Australia with little English, and that his parents regularly travelled overseas for business commitments, leaving their children at home in Tasmania.
Mr Boost's family made friends with another family. He told the commission the father in that family groomed him and then sexually abused him regularly while he was aged between 9 to 11 or 12 years old.
The commission heard Mr Boost's alleged abuser convinced Mr Boost's parents that it would be better for their son academically if he changed to a school where the alleged abuser worked.
Mr Boost said he had been "running away from" the abuse his whole life.
"Initially I thought if I get a girlfriend I will not feel this way anymore … and then for a moment everything's good and then [it's like] the tortoise and the hare; I run away and then … the tortoise catches up," he said.
He said he got a job, did an apprenticeship and later took a teaching position at TAFE.
"Every time the tortoise comes around and it's like a black cloud around me," he said.
When he was aged in his 30s, on a recruit course for a job with the Tasmania Fire Service — something he said he had wanted to do for some time — he realised the black cloud "wasn't going to go away".
He told his wife and sought help from the Sexual Assault Support Service.
In 2020, Mr Boost went to the police, which he told the commission was a positive experience for him.
The commission heard a brief of evidence was given to the Director of Public Prosecutions' office, but a decision was made not to take the matter further.
Mr Boost told the commission he was still not certain why that decision was made.
Power imbalance 'my entire life'
He told the commission the power imbalance between him and his alleged abuse had remained.
"That power imbalance carried through my entire life, and now here again we have the power imbalance with the DPP [not prosecuting] where the perpetrator is, how I see it, protected by the system because he did what he did when I was a little kid and all that's worked in his advantage and favour," Mr Boost told the commission.
"If he'd done the same thing to me as he did when I was 18 as when I was 8 it would be a whole different story — that's how I feel about it."
Mr Boost told the commission that what happened to him "didn't feel like abuse at the time".
"At the time I was lacking in parental care, I suppose," he said.
"For me, I was in a relationship and had someone who cared, [who] I thought loved me and I loved them back so at the time it certainly didn't feel like abuse, that sort of came after.
"It wasn't until the abuse was over and I sort of hit that age 13, 14, 15, where it really started to sink in what had happened … my own sexual maturity started making me think that what had happened wasn't necessarily right, and I guess that's where the damage to me personally started.
"I really split into two different people and since then I've basically been living two separate lives: one where I try to put on a facade and work through my life and become a firefighter, and the other one where I'm basically damaged and trying to keep it together enough to survive."
Mr Boost said when he was a teenager, the "shame, guilt and fear of the perpetrator" stopped him from reporting the abuse.
He said he also did not know who at the school he could report it to.
Call for transparency
Mr Boost told the commission there needed to be a greater focus in society on protecting children.
"We spend so much time worrying about adults' feelings rather than the impact on kids," he said.
"A lot gets said about protecting anonymity and making sure that people's reputations aren't hurt … when incidents happen at a school, or anywhere, and an organisation knows about it, they need to be more transparent, which will in turn educate parents and help the kids."
Mr Boost told the commission about a guest teacher who allegedly made inappropriate comments to some girls in the class.
He said a complaint was made to the principal by a group of parents, including his wife.
"The person who made the inappropriate comments just didn't turn up the next day and there was nothing said or done, so how do we instil trust in an institution like the Department of Education," he said.
"It didn't need to have any detail, just that there was an incident and if any kids needed counselling or if parents had queries, to contact the principal."
Mr Boost also said children needed to be educated about grooming.
At the end of his evidence, commission president Marcia Neave thanked Mr Boost and said:
"We hope that the government is listening and that changes will come as a result of your evidence and that of all the other survivors of sexual abuse who have given evidence to the commission."
"I also hope that hearing your evidence will help to educate the community about grooming issues, about how abuse occurs and about the powerlessness of children compared to adults."
Department head's personal apology
Education Department secretary Tim Bullard, who also appeared before the commission on Monday, said he was "incredibly sorry for what [Mr Boost] suffered at the hands of the perpetrator".
"I recognise that we need to learn from that experience, and I was very grateful that [Mr Boost] gave me some time outside the room to provide a personal apology."
Mr Bullard said legislation prevented the department from giving information about investigations, giving an example of a "difficult" matter, not related to child sexual abuse, where all he could tell the involved parties was that the investigation into it had been completed.
He said "some thought" should be given to what information was given to various parties.
"It's trauma-informed [that] if you raise something… you have an opportunity to know what happened to that information."
The commission's hearings continue in Hobart.