Sexual assault counselor charged with heinous attack of mentally ill patient at rape crisis center

A Geelong psychologist has been charged with two counts of sexually penetrating a 25-year-old woman who was under his care at a rape crisis centre.

Greg Leonard Jackman, who worked as a sexual assault counselor at the Geelong Sexual Assault and Family Violence (SAFV) Centre, was arrested and charged on August 28 this year with two counts of sexual penetration of a person with a mental illness.

The psychologist is accused of sending the client masturbation videos before allegedly sexually penetrating her orally and vaginally while she was under his care in 2019.

Now, news.com.au can also reveal that since leaving the SAFV Centre in December 2020, after the alleged misconduct was reported, Mr Jackman has been working with Aboriginal foster children and NDIS clients.

The alleged victim, Jessica*, who first told her story to news.com.au in 2023, met Mr Jackman in 2018, when the then 24-year-old university student was seeking help from the rape crisis center following childhood sexual abuse.

“I was extremely vulnerable. I was having panic attacks, nightmares and flashbacks. I was self harming and using alcohol to cope,” says Jessica now aged 31.

“I was seeing Greg, because I was sexually abused as a child. And then in my late teens, I was also in a domestic violence relationship that I had to flee from. I was hoping to receive support.”

Greg Jackman, a married sexual assault counsellor more than 10 years her senior, began giving weekly face-to-face counseling sessions with Jessica.

Before long, he was loaning her books and making movie recommendations. In time he shared his personal mobile number and even offered to meet up to go camping.

“That’s when things really ramped up,” says Jessica, who is autistic and has dissociative identity disorder.

“He began sending me nude and masturbation videos.

“During the day, in counseling, he would be ripping open memories of my sexual trauma, and then at night he would be sending me masturbation videos of himself, asking me to reciprocate.”

On April 16, 2019 at 10:46 p.m., after an intense therapy session, Jessica sent Mr. Jackman a despairing email after she became suicidal.

The email, sighted by news.com.au reads:

“Hey Greg

I need you to help me close whatever was opened up this afternoon. I haven’t felt like this after any other EMDR (therapy session) with you before. I’m having strong thoughts that feel real – along the lines of: I’m a piece of shit, it would be better off if I was dead/had never been born.

I want to push everyone away from me so they don’t have to deal with what a horrible person I am, I’m a waste of oxygen.

Level of self hatred through the roof! I’ve managed not to cut. Probably fortunate I have no money or would have drunk myself unconscious tonight but bottle shops were closed by time I got paid so that’s a good thing.

Instead spent last half an hour screaming silently in a ball on the floor…. I’m very far down.”

Jackman responded the next morning with offers of help, and two days later on Friday, April 19, they met in person.

Police will allege that Mr Jackman then sexually penetrated his client both orally and vaginally.

‘Finally’: Client’s relief at charges

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 Health Complaints Commissioner and to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

Jessica says she is “relieved Greg is finally facing charges after a very long process”.

In a written statement, the Geelong SAFV Centre told news.com.au: “Our organisation took swift and immediate action to stand down the employee, to investigate, and to support the former client.

“The health, wellbeing and safety of our clients and our staff is of the utmost importance to our organisation.

“Our organisation understands the trauma that can arise from making a report. We are grateful that our former client has had the courage to report this matter and we support their strength and advocacy in speaking out.”

Mr Jackman’s jobs after allegations

A news.com.au investigation has found that since leaving the SAFV centre in December 2020, Mr Jackman has been billing himself as a “social worker” and has been found working with NDIS clients and Aboriginal foster children, as “Foster Care Team Leader” at Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative – a publicly funded Indigenous service which provides a range of healthcare and other social services in the Geelong area.

Wathaurong, which receives more than $22 million in state Government funding per year also provided Mr Jackman with a character reference which was used at a recent AHPRA tribunal hearing earlier this year. It has been contacted for comment by news.com.au.

According to the Australian Association of Social Workers, Greg Jackman is not a registered social worker, but under Australian law, any person can call themselves a social worker as it is not a legal requirement that a person be registered – or even qualified – to practice as one.

“The case highlights the need for national registration of social workers,” a spokesperson from AASW said.

“Greg Jackman is not a current member of the Australian Association of Social Workers and therefore falls outside of our jurisdiction to carry out our disciplinary process through the Ethics Complaints Management Process (ECMP).

“The AASW has long campaigned for the national registration of social workers….This is long overdue.”

‘Social worker’ loophole exposed

In Australia, because the term social worker is not a “protected title” any person can identify as a social worker, without penalty. This differs from other countries, including Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK. In these countries, social worker is a legally protected title, and this places legally enforceable restrictions on who can and cannot publicly identify as one.

Of the 44,200 people currently employed as social workers across Australia, only 17,000 are currently registered with the AASW. Thousands are operating with no qualifications at all, and individuals expelled from other professions can easily rebrand as a ‘social worker’, with no recourse for complainants.

It is a loophole Jessica is determined to see fixed.

“Given the complex, high stakes areas they work in, including mental health, child-protection, family violence, and disability – and the devastating consequences that can result from poor social work – the Government must act on this issue,” says Jessica.

The federal health department has been contacted for comment.

Mr Jackman will next face court on September 23 at Geelong Magistrates court ahead of a committal hearing.

Nina Funnell is a Walkley Award winning freelance journalist.

*Jessica is a pseudonym. She has given consent to limited identification of her as a sexual assault complainant in Victoria, including the use of images in this article.