Toddler with genital redness observed 'cowering' around former Families SA worker Shannon McCoole.

By Candice Marcus
A toddler who was abused by paedophile carer Shannon McCoole appeared to “cower” around him and was observed with redness on her genitals that staff assumed was nappy rash, a royal commission has heard.

McCoole, a former Families SA youth worker, is serving a 35-year jail sentence for sexually abusing young children in state care.

The Child Protection Systems Royal Commission was prompted by McCoole’s conviction and is examining his employment, supervision and a series of “red flags” that were raised about him by co-workers.

Some of McCoole’s colleagues gave evidence about observations they made about an 18-month-old-girl who McCoole was later convicted of sexually abusing.

One witness said she observed the toddler had redness around her genitals, which she thought was nappy rash but said it was odd because the toddler only wore nappies at night.

“She was red down there … I was wondering why she would have that given she wasn’t in nappies at the time,” she said.

She said she also observed sexualised behaviours in the child, including seeing her play with dolls sexually and violently by touching them “between the legs” then “stomping on their heads”.

She said she called in a locum doctor to assess the toddler after finding her curled up inside a box with teddy bears at the start of her shift.

The witness said it was unusual because the child would always run up to her when she started.

She told the commission that the locum said there nothing wrong with the girl.

Another carer said she observed the girl “cower” around McCoole but thought it was because of his imposing physical size and loud voice.

McCoole had a phone used by boy to ‘photograph genitals’

Witnesses also told the commission a boy had shown increased sexualised behaviour when cared for by McCoole, but some of that behaviour stopped after McCoole stopped working at the house.

Witnesses said the boy had once used a mobile phone to take photographs of his own genitals.

When the photographs were discovered it was reported to the youth workers’ seniors.

One witness said McCoole told her he was asked by management to take the photographs off the phone and email them to management.

She said she later saw McCoole with the phone.

“He said ‘look what I have, look what I have’ and was holding up the phone,” the witness said.

She said she was extremely surprised and disappointed McCoole had the phone with the photographs of the boy’s genitals.

“It should not have been in the hands of anyone apart from IT, which should have destroyed it,” the witness said.

McCoole was convicted of sex offences against seven children, but the boy was not one of the charged victims.

The commission also heard the boy would bath with multiple layers of clothes on and never wanted the bathroom door shut, but said that changed after McCoole stopped working at the house.

“It was very shortly after Shannon had left,” a witness said.

“The [bathroom] door was shut [and] we were like ‘OK. Obviously he wants the door shut,’ and we saw his clothes were dry on the bathroom floor so he had bathed naked.”

Boy ‘changed behaviour’ after McCoole left the house

Witnesses also said the boy slept underneath his bed but started sleeping on top of his bed after McCoole stopped working at the house.

One witness also told the commission she reported an incident when the boy had drawn a picture of two penises on his bedroom wall.

One was larger and had an “angry face” and appeared to be ejaculating and the other one next to it was smaller and had a “sad face with tears”.

The witness said when she asked the boy about it he seemed unusually shy and withdrawn.

“His attitude when he explained it was a bit off,” she said.

“Normally when we found penises on the wall he would be quite proud of himself but when I found this one he seemed quite reserved and quiet … it appeared he didn’t want to talk about it.

“It looked more like abuse, only because of the emotion that it was an angry face and a sad face and had semen coming out. It was different compared to other ones.”

The witness said she logged the incident and also raised it with her seniors, including sending them a picture of the drawing.

She said she was told not to talk to the child about his sexualised behaviour because she was not a psychologist.

Another witness said, in retrospect, she felt the boy was intimidated by McCoole.

She said she did not like working with McCoole because he was arrogant and controlling and often made sexist remarks.

Boy ‘removed’ pictures of paedophile from roster
The witnesses also told the commission the boy had taken pictures of McCoole off a photo roster of staff members that had been placed on the wall.

They said he repeatedly removed the photos and, when they were replaced, the photos would go missing again.

“I can’t remember if he put them in the bin or hid them but I don’t think we found them again,” one witness said.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.