It took NSW health regulators more than 30 years to finally deregister a GP over allegations he was molesting boys.
And health bodies in NSW, including the Medical Council, the Health Care Complaints Commission, the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency and the NSW Medical Board ignored or frustrated attempts by victims to report abuse.
A royal commission on Wednesday heard from witnesses who were victims of Philip Rolleston at his private practice in St Ives and at the Royal North Shore Hospital in the mid-1970s.
Rolleston was jailed in 2011 for a maximum of four years for indecently assaulting boys aged 14 and 15 when they came to him with common complaints like a sore throat or a cold.
His sentence ends on June 23.
One man given the pseudonym AWA was first molested when he was 15 in 1974. Rolleston, a trusted family doctor, assaulted him on three occasions.
AWA said when he was 17 or 18 he reported the abuse to the NSW Medical Board and he was threatened with legal action.
The man on the phone threatened him.
"'Please listen carefully, if you try to make a complaint against one of our members we will come down so hard on you, we will sue you so that your head will be so far up your arse you won't see daylight for years," AWA said he was told.
AWA now 55, has lived in Norway for 20 years. He said when he went to the AMA it referred him back to the complaints commission (HCCC) which he had already dealt with for four years between 2009 and 2013 without getting a satisfactory answer.
He made a complaint to the Medical Council of NSW at the beginning of this year and is still waiting for an answer, which indicated to him that they had no interest in his matter.
"I am dumbfounded that even in this year, it is incredibly difficult to try and lodge a complaint against a doctor," he said.
He said his experiences have left him with the impression that the system is fractured and unable to effectively speak to a complainant.
Many of the witnesses became emotional during the testimony telling of the effect of Rolleston's abuse.
One witness known as AWG said it still affected his family and social relationships. He had three sons and was very wary on their behalf.
"In my mind every man is a potential pedophile."
Another witness, AWH had a mental breakdown in 2003 as the HCCC investigated allegations of Rolleston abusing him and his brother.
He told the hearing he was left with the impression the HCCC did not believe him.
He felt they delayed unnecessarily and has often thought: "How many children were being abused while the HCCC were investigating Dr Rolleston?"
Wednesday's hearing was told that Rolleston was de-registered in 1987 for medifraud but was reinstated three years later. It was only two years after his conviction in 2011 that he was de registered over child sex abuse.
He can apply for re-instatement in two years. He is now in his late 70s and ill.
This commission case study will also examine how the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne handled allegations of abuse perpetrated by two volunteers.
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