Polisi disuap untuk tutupi kasus pedofilia Katolik

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-sought-tips-on-church-sexual-abuse-claims-inquiry-told-20130624-2osv4.html#ixzz2XCwe6DDr

Police sought tips on church sexual abuse claims, inquiry told

June 25, 2013


"Bizarre" request: NSW Police Commissioner Max Mitchell. Photo: Dean Osland

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell invited journalist Joanne McCarthy to a meeting with police so she could ''give them some tips'' on handling allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church's Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

McCarthy, a Fairfax Media reporter, told a commission of inquiry in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday she thought the suggestion was ''bizarre''. She said it ''threw me'' to have been asked at the meeting by police for names and numbers of abuse victims, and she ''didn't want to be there''.

She had earlier called Mr Mitchell to ''get angry with him'' over police treatment of a victim who had offered a statement, with McCarthy's encouragement.


Whistleblower: Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox. Photo: Jonathan Carroll

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell established the inquiry in November after whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox alleged the church had failed to report child sexual abuse allegations to police and had failed to co-operate with police and that his own investigations had been shut down.

Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Little, appointed in late 2010 to investigate allegations of a cover-up in the Catholic Church, said Detective Chief Inspector Fox had ''ridden on a saddle of lies'' in his own preceding investigation.

McCarthy baulked at the suggestion she was ''in league'' with Detective Chief Inspector Fox, or that their ''alliance'' had affected her objectivity. She also rejected a suggestion that she was motivated to advance ''Fox's agenda against certain police''.

Her aim had been to ''get the victims looked after'', she said.

The inquiry was told that just before midnight on November 24 2010, Detective Chief Inspector Fox had sent McCarthy a draft of a report on his own investigation into sexual abuse allegations that he intended to give to the police's regional office. He asked for her input with ''grammar or amendments''.

After police established Strike Force Lantle without him, Chief Inspector Fox stayed in touch with McCarthy despite being told not to, writing to her that ''the pricks can shove it''. He also sent her an email explaining how to obliterate an email trail, which she said she did not follow because she was not technically competent to do so and ''as a journalist you don't get rid of things''.

Detective Sergeant Little said he had been ''absolutely mortified'' at Chief Inspector Fox's earlier evidence that Strike Force Lantle was ''a sham'' and ''set up to fail''. He said that unlike Chief Inspector Fox's, his investigation was not held in secret and had the support of his superiors.

Last week ABC's Lateline said police had shredded documents relating to a key Catholic Church advisory body dealing with abuse.

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