Catholic Investigators Deny Abuse Cover-up

By Patrick Caruana and Daniel Fogarty
7 News
April 30, 2013

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/16935278/church-says-works-with-vic-police-on-abuse/

The commissioners in charge of investigating claims of child abuse in the Catholic Church in Melbourne deny they have helped cover up crimes.

They say senior Victoria Police officers are "plainly wrong" for attacking the church's Melbourne-based complaints system for not reporting abuse cases.

Melbourne Response independent commissioners Peter O'Callaghan QC and Jeff Gleeson SC deny they are trying to protect the church.

Mr Gleeson said both men were disgusted at being accused of being involved in a cover-up in evidence before a Victorian parliamentary inquiry.

"How offensive it is to have suggested that we would be complicit in a process that was designed to conceal it," he told the inquiry on Tuesday.

"It's an appalling suggestion. It's offensive. I've got five children. Why would I do that?"

A Victoria Police inquiry submission said the Melbourne Response - the church's internal protocol for dealing with abuse victims in the Melbourne archdiocese since 1996 - appeared to be a substitute for criminal justice.

Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton has told the inquiry the church has hindered justice and not reported any of the 620 cases of abuse it has upheld internally since 1956, while the Melbourne Response has also not referred any complaints.

Mr O'Callaghan said he and Mr Gleeson had consistently encouraged victims to go to police.

"We submit that the police submission from Deputy Commissioner Ashton is in many aspects plainly wrong and seriously misconceived," he told the inquiry on Tuesday.

"I facilitated the referral of complaints to police ... In a lot of cases I rang the relevant police officer."

Inquiry committee member Frank McGuire said the inquiry had heard allegations of heinous crimes and cover-ups and that the church's position was intended to minimise damage to its reputation.

Mr McGuire said the perception was that the commissioners had a conflict of interest, which Mr O'Callaghan rejected.

"The fact of being paid by the appointer does not - and it is a grave allegation against me when it has been made - destroy my independence," Mr O'Callaghan said.

"If I am covering up, if that is what I am accused of, I have found 97 per cent of complaints that have come before me established."

He said his role was akin to that of a royal commissioner.

The inquiry heard there had been 330 complaints made to Melbourne Response since it began, 304 of which had been upheld.

Mr O'Callaghan said the number of victims was an indictment on the Catholic Church, but the Melbourne Response provided a remedy for victims which did not previously exist.

The church's insurer has paid out about $30 million to 600 Victorian abuse victims since 1990, the inquiry heard.

Catholic Church Insurance CEO Peter Rush said the company did not make payouts for offences where the church had known about the offender, including those committed by pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale after 1975 when then Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns became aware of his offences.

Compensation claims have been rejected in at least two cases, those of Ridsdale and former Catholic priest Michael Glennon, because the church had knowledge of the offenders.

Mr Rush said the practice in the 1970s would have been to allow abusive clergy members to continue in the ministry, but this had not occurred since the Melbourne Response and the national Towards Healing process were introduced in 1996.

Victoria Police did not comment on Tuesday's inquiry evidence.