Office Ransacked: Nsw Police Whistleblower

By Doug Conway
The Australian
May 6, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/nsw-sex-abuse-inquiry-to-start-monday/story-fn3dxiwe-1226635679501

A whistleblower's office was searched while he was away, according to a child sexual abuse inquiry.

A POLICE whistleblower who alleges a "Catholic mafia" including police covered up child sexual abuse by priests in the NSW Hunter Valley has made explosive claims that his office was ransacked while he was away on leave.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told a government-ordered inquiry that in September 2010, on the day he started a month's leave, he was asked to handle a ministerial complaint regarding concerns about a "church conspiracy".

When he returned from leave he was told by a now-retired public servant that his superior, Superintendent Charles Haggett, and Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Humphrey, had got the keys to his office and searched it "from top to bottom, looking in every filing cabinet".

"You are kidding," an astonished Insp Fox told the public servant.

"Please don't tell them I told you," she said. "But whatever it was they were looking for, they didn't find it."

Insp Fox told the special commission of inquiry in Newcastle on Monday he had taken the precaution of locking the file in his safe because he was concerned that "something like this" might occur.

He described the action as "totally unprofessional".

He said that in his 35 years in the police force he had never heard of senior officers turning a colleague's office "upside down" to find a sensitive brief.

Insp Fox said other policemen including Troy Grant, a former officer who is now the state Nationals MP for Dubbo, had told him they felt they were being discouraged from investigating the clergy.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan, SC, told Insp Fox that Mr Grant had made a statement saying he was not hindered and had made no such observation to him.

"I clearly remember the conversation because it was the first time I had heard the phrase 'Catholic mafia'. I am surprised he would say that," said Insp Fox.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, is concentrating on two priests in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, both now dead - Father Denis McAlinden, who she said was regarded by many as a serial offender over four decades, and Father James Fletcher, a convicted pedophile who a judge said was guilty of a "gross and inexcusable breach of trust".

Insp Fox said a statement from a former altar boy who was a victim of Father Fletcher was one of the most difficult he had ever had to take.

He did not specify the nature of Fletcher's crimes but said they were "most horrid ... dreadful, dreadful crimes".

The traumatised victim had attempted suicide multiple times.

Insp Fox also alleged collusion by Bishop Michael Malone and others which he said had led to Father Fletcher being forewarned about his investigations.

He said he started to "seriously distrust" some senior police and ultimately pursued his investigations in confidence rather than logging them through official police channels.

"I didn't trust the police environment," he told the inquiry in the Newcastle Supreme Court.

Insp Fox said that at a meeting in 2010 he was told by Superintendent Max Mitchell, now an assistant commissioner, not to continue his investigations into sexual abuse.

Mr Mitchell and Mr Grant are both due to give evidence to the inquiry, along with other senior police and church officials.

The inquiry continues on Tuesday.