A Geelong psychologist has been charged with two counts of sexually penetrating a 25-year-old girl who was underneath his care at a rape disaster centre.
Greg Leonard Jackman, who labored as a sexual assault counselor on the Geelong Sexual Assault and Household Violence (SAFV) Centre, was arrested and charged on August 28 this yr with two counts of sexual penetration of an individual with a psychological sickness.
The psychologist is accused of sending the shopper masturbation movies earlier than allegedly sexually penetrating her orally and vaginally whereas she was underneath his care in 2019.
Now, information.com.au can even reveal that since leaving the SAFV Centre in December 2020, after the alleged misconduct was reported, Mr Jackman has been working with Aboriginal foster youngsters and NDIS purchasers.
The alleged sufferer, Jessica*, who first informed her story to information.com.au in 2023, met Mr Jackman in 2018, when the then 24-year-old college pupil was looking for assist from the rape disaster heart following childhood sexual abuse.
“I used to be extraordinarily weak. I used to be having panic assaults, nightmares and flashbacks. I used to be self harming and utilizing alcohol to manage,” says Jessica now aged 31.
“I used to be seeing Greg, as a result of I used to be sexually abused as a toddler. After which in my late teenagers, I used to be additionally in a home violence relationship that I needed to flee from. I hoped to obtain assist.”
Greg Jackman, a married sexual assault counsellor greater than 10 years her senior, started giving weekly face-to-face counseling periods with Jessica.
Earlier than lengthy, he was loaning her books and making film suggestions. In time he shared his private cell quantity and even provided to fulfill as much as go tenting.
“That’s when issues actually ramped up,” says Jessica, who’s autistic and has dissociative identification dysfunction.
“He started sending me nude and masturbation movies.
“Through the day, in counseling, he can be ripping open recollections of my sexual trauma, after which at evening he can be sending me masturbation movies of himself, asking me to reciprocate.”
On April 16, 2019 at 10:46 p.m., after an intense remedy session, Jessica despatched Mr. Jackman a despairing e-mail after she turned suicidal.
The e-mail, sighted by information.com.au reads:
“Hey Greg
I would like you to assist me shut no matter was opened up this afternoon. I haven’t felt like this after some other EMDR (remedy session) with you earlier than. I’m having sturdy ideas that really feel actual – alongside the strains of: I’m a chunk of shit, it might be higher off if I used to be lifeless/had by no means been born.
I need to push everybody away from me in order that they don’t must cope with what a horrible particular person I’m, I’m a waste of oxygen.
Stage of self hatred by way of the roof! I’ve managed to not lower. Most likely lucky I’ve no cash or would have drunk myself unconscious tonight however bottle retailers had been closed by time I obtained paid in order that’s a superb factor.
As an alternative spent final half an hour screaming silently in a ball on the ground…. I’m very far down.”
Jackman responded the subsequent morning with affords of assist, and two days afterward Friday, April 19, they met in particular person.
Police will allege that Mr Jackman then sexually penetrated his shopper each orally and vaginally.
‘Lastly’: Consumer’s aid at prices
Jessica first reported the allegations to the SAFV centre in December 2020. Mr Jackman resigned days later.
She then reported the matter to the Victorian police, the Well being Complaints Commissioner and to the Australian Well being Practitioner Regulation Company (AHPRA).
Jessica says she is “relieved Greg is lastly dealing with prices after a really lengthy course of”.
In a written assertion, the Geelong SAFV Centre informed information.com.au: “Our organisation took swift and quick motion to face down the worker, to analyze, and to assist the previous shopper.
“The well being, wellbeing and security of our purchasers and our workers is of the utmost significance to our organisation.
“Our organisation understands the trauma that may come up from making a report. We’re grateful that our former shopper has had the braveness to report this matter and we assist their power and advocacy in talking out.”
Mr Jackman’s jobs after allegations
A information.com.au investigation has discovered that since leaving the SAFV centre in December 2020, Mr Jackman has been billing himself as a “social employee” and has been discovered working with NDIS purchasers and Aboriginal foster youngsters, as “Foster Care Workforce Chief” at Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative – a publicly funded Indigenous service which gives a spread of healthcare and different social companies within the Geelong space.
Wathaurong, which receives greater than $22 million in state Authorities funding per yr additionally supplied Mr Jackman with a personality reference which was used at a current AHPRA tribunal listening to earlier this yr. It has been contacted for remark by information.com.au.
In keeping with the Australian Affiliation of Social Staff, Greg Jackman just isn’t a registered social employee, however underneath Australian legislation, any particular person can name themselves a social employee as it’s not a authorized requirement that an individual be registered – and even certified – to observe as one.
“The case highlights the necessity for nationwide registration of social employees,” a spokesperson from AASW mentioned.
“Greg Jackman just isn’t a present member of the Australian Affiliation of Social Staff and due to this fact falls outdoors of our jurisdiction to hold out our disciplinary course of by way of the Ethics Complaints Administration Course of (ECMP).
“The AASW has lengthy campaigned for the nationwide registration of social employees….That is lengthy overdue.”
‘Social employee’ loophole uncovered
In Australia, as a result of the time period social employee just isn’t a “protected title” any particular person can determine as a social employee, with out penalty. This differs from different nations, together with Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK. In these nations, social employee is a legally protected title, and this locations legally enforceable restrictions on who can and can’t publicly determine as one.
Of the 44,200 folks at the moment employed as social employees throughout Australia, solely 17,000 are at the moment registered with the AASW. 1000’s are working with no {qualifications} in any respect, and people expelled from different professions can simply rebrand as a ‘social employee’, with no recourse for complainants.
It’s a loophole Jessica is decided to see mounted.
“Given the advanced, excessive stakes areas they work in, together with psychological well being, child-protection, household violence, and incapacity – and the devastating penalties that may outcome from poor social work – the Authorities should act on this challenge,” says Jessica.
The federal well being division has been contacted for remark.
Mr Jackman will subsequent face courtroom on September 23 at Geelong Magistrates courtroom forward of a committal listening to.
Nina Funnell is a Walkley Award successful freelance journalist.
*Jessica is a pseudonym. She has given consent to restricted identification of her as a sexual assault complainant in Victoria, together with the usage of photographs on this article.
