Unanswered Questions for Townsville Police

Questions for Townsville Police Child Protection Unit Officer David Miles

1. Could you provide an overview of your career with the Child Protection Unit, including the length of your service?
2. What specific training have you undertaken throughout your career to remain informed and skilled in the latest practices in child protection and forensic interviewing techniques?
3. Approximately how many children have disclosed incidents of sexual abuse to you or those under your supervision during your tenure?
4. Of these disclosures, how many did you find credible and acted upon?
5. How many individuals accused of child sexual abuse have you or your team successfully charged?
6. What percentage of these charges have resulted in successful prosecutions?
7. In how many instances did you or your team determine that the protective parent(s) were fabricating or misrepresenting claims of abuse?
8. Have you conducted any follow-up visits or welfare checks on the children involved in the case?
9. Can you provide current statistics on the prevalence of child sexual abuse? Specifically, is it accurate that one in four girls and one in five boys are affected, typically by someone with unfettered access to them? How do you perceive the significance of these statistics?
10. Are you aware of the long-term psychological and physical consequences for children whose disclosures of abuse are ignored?
11. How do you address the potential for these outcomes, such as increased risks of suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, and reduced life expectancy?
12. How do you reconcile the outcomes for children you have labeled as not credible, such as the children and the grandson in this case, with the potential negative consequences of disbelieving genuine disclosures?
13. Have you been informed of the current situation with the female children, whom you previously deemed untruthful, and the subsequent impact of their placement with the father they accused of abuse?
14. What is your perspective on why a doctor with decades of experience would jeopardize his career and reputation by fabricating claims of evidence of sexual abuse, such as bleeding, in the children?
15. In your professional opinion, which scenario is more detrimental to a child’s well-being: repeated forensic interviews regarding abuse allegations or living in a situation where they are subjected to ongoing sexual abuse?
16. Are you aware of the findings from Australian twin studies, indicating that sexual abuse leads to significantly higher rates of major depression, suicide attempts, conduct disorders, and other negative life outcomes compared to non-abused twins?
17. Do you genuinely believe that interviewing children with trained forensic specialists is more harmful than allowing them to remain in an environment where they may be subjected to ongoing sexual abuse?
18. Have you observed any indicators of sexual abuse in the children involved in this case that align with established signs and symptoms? Suicidal, running away, self-harming – you know, all the usual signs of horrific sexual abuse.
19. Were you ever investigated in connection with the death of an Aboriginal youth on Palm Island? If so, what were the findings?
20. Was the presiding judge in your case, Judge Claire, the same judge now involved in this current case, particularly in relation to defense access to evidence?
21. Could you clarify the outcome of the investigation into the Palm Island case, especially in terms of your conduct being acquitted or found innocent of wrongdoing?
22. Why was there a five-year delay in providing the prosecution with video evidence of the childrens’ disclosures of sexual abuse?
23. Why did you assert to Magistrate Anthony Gett that there were no disclosures of sexual abuse by the children, despite clear evidence to the contrary?
24. Did you only provide the transcripts of the interviews when it became evident that others had copies, which could expose you to perjury charges for withholding them?
25. Was the prolonged delay in providing video evidence related to concerns about the children’s repeated disclosures of abuse?
26. How many times did Child B disclose that her father was touching her genital area during the first interview? Are you aware that she mentioned it fourteen times?
27. Was this case reviewed by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), and if so, what were their conclusions regarding the professionalism of the interviews conducted?
28. In light of any criticisms, did your team receive additional training or were the children re-interviewed by a qualified child protection expert?
29. Are you aware of Judge Claire’s prior communication with the State Attorney-General, stressing the importance of the prosecution providing all evidence to the defense in a timely manner?
30. At any point, did Judge Claire or any other judicial authority require you to provide all relevant evidence, particularly the video recordings, prior to your eventual submission?
31. Why do you believe Judge Claire did not order the evidence to be supplied in this case?
32. Are you aware of a previous case where Judge Claire wrote to the Attorney-General, advocating for the defense in a case involving the rape of a young female child by nine older boys, and how this may influence her decisions in the current case?
33. Have you ever been investigated for failing to adequately investigate other allegations of child sexual abuse?
34. Were you called to testify before a royal commission on institutional child sexual abuse, where your investigation practices were scrutinized?
35. What specialized training do your officers receive in conducting forensic interviews with young children who have disclosed sexual abuse?
36. What ongoing professional development and refresher courses do your officers participate in to ensure they remain current with best practices and evidence-based approaches in child protection and forensic interviewing?
37. Have the children involved in this case received grief counseling for the loss of their primary caregiver?
38. How many mandatory reports concerning the children were received by your unit?
39. How many mandatory reporters were involved in filing these reports?
40. Of the mandatory reporters involved, how many were interviewed by your team? If only one was interviewed, can you explain why the other reporters were not engaged to ensure a comprehensive investigation?
41. What are the potential consequences for children who disclose sexual abuse and are subsequently disbelieved by authorities?
42. What is the average percentage of children who recant their disclosures of sexual abuse, and how does this compare to cases where abuse has been medically or otherwise substantiated?
43. Are you aware that research indicates that 43.1% of children who initially recant their disclosures of abuse later reaffirm their allegations, while 56.9% maintain their recant