Ben Felton put what he said was the most horrific part of his life into the public eye to help build a safer future for children.
Mr Felton was one of the witnesses who gave evidence to Tasmania's child sexual abuse commission of inquiry.
Speaking outside the commission, Mr Felton said sexual abuse needed to be talked about.
"I've put out there the most horrific part of my life … and I've gone and told the whole world, but I've done that for a reason," he said.
"We need people to see that this stuff goes on … I will never be able to find that person I was prior to the age of 13 again. That person's been killed off and buried. I can't resurrect that.
"I just don't ever want any child to ever go through something like this."
The commission heard Mr Felton was 13 years old in 1989 when he was admitted to the Launceston General Hospital (LGH) with pneumonia and allegedly sexually abused by a nurse known by the pseudonym "George".
Addressing the commission, Mr Felton said he told his parents about the abuse, and that there was a meeting between the family, two nurses, director of medical services Peter Renshaw, and someone they were told was a detective.
Mr Felton told the commission that Dr Renshaw said there would be a full investigation and "hope your son doesn't remember".
In his evidence to the commission last week, Dr Renshaw said he had no recollection of a meeting with Mr Felton and his father.
Dr Renshaw told the commission he was inexperienced at the time — the commission heard he had been appointed to his role in 1989, after working for two years as a registrar — a junior doctor position.
"I think it [the complaint] was mentioned to me, but I was not expected to take any role in the investigation or management of the complaint," he told the commission.
He also said he was not aware of what was being done to manage the situation at the time.
The commission heard Mr Felton returned to the LGH in 2003 to find Dr Renshaw.
"I just said to him, 'I'm the little boy that wouldn't remember' and, at that moment, I had his full attention," Mr Felton told the commission in June.
He told the commission he asked to see "the outcome of the investigation" and that Dr Renshaw did not give him any information, instead giving him the phone number of someone else at the hospital who he said he called "once or twice a week for a couple of months", but "nothing happened".
Nurse 'remained employed in the Tasmanian Health Service'
Last week, the commission also heard evidence from Stephen Ayre, a former LGH chief executive who was involved in dealing with Mr Felton's 2003 complaint.
"We learned that both Dr Ayre and Dr Renshaw believed Mr Fenton was in fact abused in 1989 and that belief was reflected in Dr Ayre's advice to the then secretary of the [Health] Department to compensate Mr Felton to assist him with counselling in his home state, and to provide an apology," counsel assisting the commission, Elizabeth Bennett, SC, told the commission on Tuesday.
"This position was in contrast to the legal advice received at the time which advised there was no liability to Mr Felton due to limitation periods.
"Dr Ayre's advice to support Mr Felton was apparently not accepted, although it appears the secretary at the time did ask for the employment status of George to be followed up."
Ms Bennett said neither Dr Ayre nor Dr Renshaw in their evidence could recall any follow-up on the question of George's employment status.
"The current secretary, [Kathrine] Morgan-Wicks confirmed that no records could be found to suggest any steps were taken in relation to George's employment in 2005," she said.
"As a result, George remained employed, at least from time to time, within the Tasmanian Health Service until the department became aware of Mr Felton's abuse again in early 2021.
"It then initiated a code of conduct investigation, which led to George's employment being terminated over 15 years after Mr Felton as an adult raised the alarm about the risks that George could present."
Dr Ayre told the commission a new investigation would have been considered after Mr Felton returned in the early 2000s, but that an investigation did not happen because the alleged abuse occurred too long ago.
Mr Felton, speaking outside the commission, said his parents had "done everything right" in supporting him when he first disclosed he had been abused, but he said his mother died without knowing what the commission had uncovered about the response to his initial disclosure and later complaint.
"My father, at the age of 72, has had to relive this and he's carried this on his shoulders, as well as my mother who has passed away."
He said the commission had put an "amazing, professional" effort into supporting victim-survivors through the process.
The commission is due to report by May.
