We Owe Our Gratitude to Those Who Stood with Victims
ABC News
The abuse of children by Catholic clergymen has exposed a major failure of society, writes Suzanne Smith. But there were those who refused to accept the status quo. I have met many honourable people in my career as a journalist, but none so inspiring as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox and Joanne McCarthy, the courageous journalist from the Newcastle Herald. But it hasn't been an easy road for either of them. They have stood beside many victims when everyone else failed to take responsibility and left those victims to deal individually with the Catholic Church. This has been a major failure of our society. We all left these traumatised and shattered families to deal directly with a powerful institution. Many gasped in horror last Thursday night on ABC's Lateline when Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox described the anal rape of a teenage boy by the notorious paedophile priest James Fletcher. But the shocking nature of the facts in that case is repeated over and over again in many more investigations. There are 400 known victims in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese alone. But why there have been so many successful prosecutions in this small area of NSW is due to a lack of indifference. Joanne McCarthy was not indifferent to the pleas of victims and their parents. Peter Fox was ready to sacrifice his career for the same reason. Peter Fox has suffered both personally and professionally for his courageous stance. His family has suffered as well. He is on stress leave and expects to have to leave the force in the near future. In 2010, he was forced to hand over an investigation into the predatory paedophile priest Denis McAlinden. Here is my Lateline story on McAlinden from 2010. McAlinden sexually assaulted many many little girls from the age of five. He was moved from Newcastle to Western Australia, then to Papua New Guinea and the UK. Peter Fox, however, had the trust of a key witness, a church insider. She was dismayed when Peter Fox was forced to stand down from the inquiry. A senior officer in the police ordered him to hand over all the documents. This led to Peter Fox taking sick leave from the force. Since last Thursday night's appearance, the fact that Peter Fox has been on sick leave has been used as a weapon to discredit him. Peter Fox says journalists have told him that police sources claimed he was "mentally unstable". A NSW Police Force spokesman denies this ever took place and said no one had been authorised to do this. Yesterday, he sent a letter to the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, asking for the intimidation to stop. He told me in an interview: I knew when I spoke out my career at the police force was at an end. It is sad but it is a reality. It has always been a fact, and it was indentified by the Wood Royal Commission, that we have a sinister and ugly culture in some parts of the police force. Journalists have told me that they received those calls from some police. I hope Andrew Scipione and the Premier will stomp on that quick. Last Friday, Peter Fox received a call from a senior officer asking him about his welfare and asking him to adhere to rules that he must not speak to the media. But of more concern was the call made to Peter Fox's doctor requesting permission for a senior officer to attend one of Peter Fox's counselling sessions. Both Peter Fox and the counsellor were horrified. Joanne McCarthy has been treated as a pariah by some in the Catholic Church for the past seven years. She was the one who found the significant witness at the centre of the McAlinden case and convinced her to go to the police, in this case, Peter Fox. Three very senior members of the church clergy are under investigation over the McAlinden matter. They include the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, the general secretary of the Bishops Conference, Brian Lucas, and the former Bishop of Newcastle, Michael Malone. This is just one lead McCarthy has discovered. There are many more. She has worked closely with many good police in the Newcastle area. She has taken on this mammoth task and has not buckled when the going has gotten tough. She has not sought any fame; indeed, when I suggested I nominate her for the Walkley Leadership award, she scoffed it away. She isn't in this for her own ego. She is in it for the good of society. In an interview with me yesterday, she said: It has been easier to make excuses. It has been easier to accept the excuses than challenge the status quo. We have appallingly let down the most vulnerable in society. We have left the organisation that perpetrated the crimes to be responsible for looking after the victims, and that is ridiculous. By saying that these are crimes and challenging the church, it allowed victims to trust other institutions knowing they would be believed, knowing they would be believed by the police. There are many other people who, like Joanne and Peter, did not accept the status quo. Many many victims across the country. We all owe them a debt of gratitude. Suzanne Smith is an award-winning ABC television and online investigative journalist who works at Lateline. View her full profile here.
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