The Victorian ombudsman has derided the state's working with children vetting system, exposing how it can put vulnerable youth in predators' paths.
Unlike other states, Victoria's screening authority cannot stop people from working with children when there are concerns about the risks they pose as they generally have to be charged with a serious crime.
If concerns escalate after they have been granted clearance, officials can be left with no grounds to revoke it.
The ombudsman's investigation was prompted by ABC reports, which revealed Alexander Jones - a former Melbourne City Mission worker - misused his prior credentials to access sensitive information about children and young people.
The former youth worker's credentials remained active for about 15 months because of an oversight, after he moved into another the role. His account was only deactivated in October 2018 when the breach was identified.
A few days later, Working With Children Check Victoria was notified of concerns about Jones' contact with young people.
All the while, he had sexually assaulted a child known by the pseudonym "Zack" in May 2018 after they met at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station.
He was also the subject of multiple serious interstate child protection concerns and apprehended violence orders when he applied for a job in Victoria, the ombudsman revealed.
"Because he was never charged with a crime (interstate), these did not appear in his national police check, nor were they disclosed to Working With Children Check Victoria," Ombudsman Deborah Glass said.
"Even more remarkably, the inadequacies in Victoria's child safety screening legislation mean that these prior investigations would not have been grounds to refuse Jones a Working With Children clearance, even if the screening authority had been aware of them."
Jones' clearance wasn't revoked until May 2019.
About three months earlier, Zack told Child Protection that Jones sexually assaulted him, and Jones was subsequently arrested and charged.
Furthermore, Jones was never qualified to work with children, and he lied to Melbourne City Mission about his previous employment and qualifications, the ombudsman said.
Zack's family received conflicting information from officials about how much of his information Jones had inappropriately accessed.
They decided to pack up and move at "considerable inconvenience and emotional cost".
The ombudsman found Jones did not access Zack's information, but authorities' poor communication undermined their responsibility to support a victim-survivor.
It was imperative Victorian legislation was amended so officials could act on information that showed working with children applicants posed an unjustifiable risk to their safety, Ms Glass said.
That should be the case regardless of whether criminal charges were brought, she said.
"Some painful lessons have been learnt. For the safety of our children, more needs to be done."
Melbourne City Mission has strengthened its pre-recruitment checks, and the community support organisation accepted the ombudsman's recommendation to review staff grievance procedures.
The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing acknowledged more should have been done to protect clients' information and has accepted the ombudsman's recommendations to improve information security, and develop a data breach response plan.
Jones pleaded guilty and was subsequently convicted and jailed for sexually assaulting Zack.
Despite that, he continues to deny sexually assaulting the child, and told the ombudsman he was not inappropriate with children in Victoria.
He denied being investigated for alleged sexual offences in NSW and being served an apprehended violence order there. He never contacted a family or young person using information he accessed, he said.
