Survivors of paedophiles working at Launceston General Hospital receive $7.85 million compensation Survivors of alleged historical child sexual abuse at a Tasmanian hospital have received a combined $7.85 million settlement, with one claimant saying that while no money could remedy the abuse, it was “life-changing”. Law firm Arnold Thomas and Becker has resolved five claims against the State of Tasmania or the Tasmanian Health Service, averaging over $1.5 million per claim. Another two in-principle settlements have also been reached, with another 20 claims underway. The claims allege abuse by former paediatric nurse James “Jim” Geoffrey Griffin and another nurse at the Launceston General Hospital (LGH) — with some extending to other settings. Principal lawyer Kelly Schober said the health service and the hospital should have done more to protect the children while they were inpatients and had failed to provide a safe place. “As part of that, we say [they] knew, or ought to have known, that children at the hospital might be at risk of physical and sexual abuse, particularly by Griffin,” she said. Griffin worked as a paediatric nurse at the LGH between 2009 and 2019. He was charged with multiple child sex offences in October 2019, but died by suicide before the allegations could be tested in court. The revelations against him were one of the reasons the recent Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings was established, and the LGH was one of the key institutions probed into. Read more about this media story. Contact us As a leading Australian Abuse firm, we have helped hundreds of brave abuse survivors obtain compensation for physical, psychological and sexual abuse in intuitional settings. Money can’t take the pain away, however, it can help achieve clarity and closure. We have extensive experience in obtaining ground-breaking multi-million dollar payments for our clients. Visit our Institutional Abuse page for more information or call us on 03 9034 8433.