Families SA*s David Waterford resigns after misleading superiors regarding alleged child abuser (ABC)

ABC David Waterford says he "inadvertently mislead" his superiors after skim reading source material.

The South Australian Education Department's deputy chief executive has resigned for "inadvertently misleading" his boss and the Minister over a sexual abuse case involving a Families SA carer.

The carer has been charged over the abuse of seven preschool-aged children under his care at a Government residential facility.

Families SA deputy chief executive David Waterford last week said no complaints had been made against the man during his employment.

It was later revealed the charged man had been investigated a year ago for alleged improper conduct against a toddler, but the claims could not be substantiated.

Today, Mr Waterford said in light of the claims he retrieved and revisited a number of "source documents", and realised he had misinterpreted a critical section.

He said this failure caused him to honestly but inaccurately brief Minister Jennifer Rankine and departmental CEO.

Mr Waterford said he had resigned because he fell well short of the standards of a public servant.

"Due to so few staff within Families SA knowing about the alleged offences and the arrest of the Families SA employee, no consolidated, written briefing was in existence on Tuesday 22 July," he said in a statement.

"My briefing of the chief executive and the Minister was from my memory of reading certain source documents.

"In hindsight this was a fundamental shortcoming in process for which I was responsible.

"In light of new claims that emerged in the media on Thursday and that were raised with the department on Friday afternoon, I retrieved and revisited a number of these sources on Friday night.

"With regard to one of those documents, revisiting it caused me to remember that I had only skimmed it and on Friday night I quickly came to the realisation that I had misinterpreted information on one page because I had not read another critical section.

"This failure caused me to honestly but inaccurately brief the minister and chief executive."

The Government said Mr Waterford's resignation was "unsolicited and unexpected".

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24566226/families-sas-david-waterford-resigns-after-misleading-superiors-regarding-alleged-child-abuser/