Forrest Tennis Club member tears up membership in response to national redress scheme failure

Daniel Levy wrote to the club in June urging the board to do the right thing and provide an avenue for the victims of former Forrest Tennis Club coach John Walter Cattle to be compensated for their suffering.

The club failed to address his concerns in correspondence seen by The Canberra Times. Rather, the board directed him to send his cancellation notification via post.

Mr Levy regarded the club's actions as being of incredibly bad faith given what he had observed of its recent expenditures.

"It is grossly offensive and misrepresentative that the club is crying 'poor me'," Mr Levy said.

"Its membership base is among the most affluent in Australia and they should compensate the victims of the club immediately."

Forrest Tennis Club's treasurer's report for 2020 said it was in "great financial shape, despite the effect of COVID lockdown".

The club's total income increased 17 per cent from the year prior, with a new car park generating $22,886 in the nine months from January to September.

Future income from the car park was anticipated to put the club in an "unassailable financial position in the years to come".

An increase in members - driven predominantly by families and young adults - saw the club bring in more than $50,000 in membership fees.

Earlier this year, the club also received $50,000 from the ACT government for its LED lighting upgrade.

Mr Levy said the club had never communicated the redress proceedings with members and had continued to operate business as usual.

"I'm disgusted that the club likely knew what was going on with the redress scheme and was still seeking funds to do court upgrades instead of having crisis meetings to figure out how exactly they could make these victims of horrible abuses whole," he said.

"I would hope that they are reflecting on their actions and feeling at least some level of guilt for the retraumatisation they have subjected these victims to by being so opaque and obtuse about the process of actually compensating them."

ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates has led the push for the club to take responsibility for what happened 38 years ago.

In a statement released by Ms Yates recently, two victims of Cattle spoke publicly for the first time about the abuse they were subject to at the club in the 1980s.

The victims said the club's failure to sign on to the national redress scheme would be a disincentive to other child sexual abuse victims to come forward.

"It also indicates a disturbing and prevailing culture within the club with respect to child protection," the statement said.

"This abuse, which began 38 years ago and culminated in a two-year criminal trial, has taken a significant physical, emotional and financial toll on both of us. Despite this, we consider ourselves lucky to have survived child sexual abuse.

"Many victims did not survive. We see it as our duty to do everything we can to ensure all victims of abuse are given a voice and an opportunity to heal and survive their ordeals."

Their abuser was given a two-year suspended sentence in June 2020, avoiding jail time for molesting his two students due to a terminal illness.

In response to the victim's statements, Forrest Tennis Club said it supported the rights of victims and had engaged with the national redress scheme over the last six months to better understand the "complex process and implications of signing up".

A spokesman said members had been advised of this process and the club had not ruled out signing on to the scheme.

"The Forrest Tennis Club has endeavoured to provide members with updates about the Club's ongoing engagement with officials from the National Redress Scheme, and our earlier full cooperation with the ACT Police investigation that resulted in the successful prosecution of the perpetrator," a spokesman said.

The spokesman said members had also been advised that most community-based clubs and organisations in Australia have not yet joined the scheme.

"The reason Forrest Tennis Club was publicly named is because one or more of Cattle's victims has lodged an application for compensation against the club under the Redress Scheme, and that under the NRS this meant that if we had not signed up within six months of the application being made the club would be publicly named.

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"FTC's willingness to be transparent with members and the community has to be balanced with respecting the victims' privacy, as well as legal considerations about how much we can comment publicly on these matters.

FTC has assured members that it supports the rights of victims of sexual and physical abuse and their right to fair compensation. As a volunteer-run community tennis club, we ask members and the community to be patient as we continue to work through the NRS process."

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