A senior serving police officer has alleged the Catholic Church
covers up crimes of paedophile priests, silences investigations and
destroys crucial evidence to avoid prosecutions.
Detective Chief
Inspector Peter Fox has spent more than 30 years as an investigator and
has been at the centre of major police operations in the
Newcastle-Hunter region of New South Wales.
He has, calling for a Royal Commission into child sex abuse within the Catholic Church.
Mirroring
police evidence given to the Victorian inquiry into the Catholic Church
launched this year, he says in his letter: "Many police are frustrated
by this sinister behaviour which will continue until someone stops it."
"I
can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences
victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys
evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church. None
of that stops at the Victorian border."
Abuse statistics for the
Newcastle-Maitland diocese paint an ugly picture: 400 known victims of
child sexual abuse by clergy 11 clergy charged and convicted since 1995; 6
Catholic teachers convicted since 1995; 3 priests currently on trial; first priest charged this year with concealing the crimes of another 12
priests involved in substantial compensation claims and the highest known
compensation payout to a victim - $3 million.
Two police strike forces are investigating whether church officials were involved in covering up crimes.
Not
all clergy are fully cooperating with police, however the Premier has
repeatedly said police have the investigation under control.
But
Chief Inspector Fox believes police prosecutions on their own cannot
deal with the Catholic Church's structures and systems for reporting
abuse.
"In many cases that I came across, one priest who had
previously faced paedophile charges was donating parish money to the
legal support of another priest to defend himself from those charges,"
he told Lateline.
"I had other priests that hadn't been charged
with anything removing evidence and destroying it before we were able to
secure it, and we just went around in circles. The greatest
frustration is that there is so much power and organisation behind the
scenes that police don't have the powers to be able to go in and seize
documents and have them [the church] disclose things to us."
Chief Inspector Fox says he has "definite information" of alleged cover-ups by a number of diocese bishops.
"It potentially goes even higher than that," he said.
Alleged cover-up
Chief
Inspector Fox was responsible for the conviction of paedophile priest
Father Jim Fletcher, who had not been stood down or removed from contact
with children during the police investigation.
Also, he encountered alleged serious issues of cover-up in his investigation of another priest, Father Denis McAlinden.
The
priest had arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1949 and for four
decades he was transferred from parish to parish, and even outside
Australia.
The NSW Department of Public Prosecutions is now
looking at whether McAlinden's crimes were covered up by three senior
members of the clergy, including the general secretary of the Australian
Catholic Bishops conference, Brian Lucas, the Archbishop of Adelaide,
Philip Wilson and former bishop of Newcastle, Michael Malone.
Chief
Inspector Fox was in the middle of investigating this matter in 2010
when he was directed to hand over all his evidence to other officers,
including a statement from a critical witness.
He says the statement was "explosive".
"When
I was directed to hand that statement over I described her statement as
... explosive. And I still describe that statement as explosive," he
said.
"What is disclosed in that is monumental."
Chief Inspector Fox says police have sent brief papers to the Director of Public Prosecutions, which are being considered.
He says an archbishop, a bishop and a priest have been implicated in alleged cover-up.
Northern
Region Commander Assistant Commissioner Carlene York told Lateline that
Chief Inspector Fox was directed to hand over his work because of a new
taskforce in a different Local Area Command (LAC).
"Strike Force
Lantle was established to ensure that a thorough and coordinated
investigation was undertaken in relation to the allegations raised," she
said.
At that time, Detective Chief Inspector Fox was a crime
manager at Port Stephens Local Area Command and was informed the strike
force would be fully investigating the allegations.
"The strike
force was undertaken by detectives from the Local Area Command
responsible for the investigation, that being Newcastle City.
"It would be unusual for a crime manager from a neighbouring LAC to work on a Strike Force in another LAC."
Chief Inspector Fox says a Royal Commission into allegations of abuse and cover-up within the Catholic Church is needed.
"There's so much that the police force can't do. We don't have power," he said.
Lateline asked the NSW Premier for a specific response to Chief Inspector Fox's letter to him.
His spokesman said police investigations are ongoing and Mr O'Farrell will not interfere with that.
"The best result is successful prosecutions and no-one should keep these offences secret," the spokesman said.