Whistleblower 'Lied to Nsw Police'

Sky News
May 7, 2013

http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=870135


NSW police whistleblower Peter Fox has told an inquiry he lied to fellow officers when he said he forgot to bring statements from sex abuse victims to a meeting.

Detective Chief Inspector Fox told the hearing in Newcastle on Tuesday he had deliberately left the documents on his desk.

Asked by counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, if he had lied to police in saying he had forgotten them, he replied: 'Absolutely.'

He has previously testified that he had lost trust in some senior police.

'I was hoping I wouldn't have to surrender them (the documents),' Insp Fox said.

He said he went to the December 2010 meeting at Waratah police station hoping to be able to continue his investigations into child sexual abuse by priests.

But he held concerns the meeting would be about something else, and 'sadly the latter was correct'.

It was at that meeting he was told to cease his investigations and hand over his files.

Insp Fox has alleged a 'Catholic mafia' including police tried to cover up sex abuse crimes by priests in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

Special Commissioner Margaret Cunneen is investigating the circumstances in which Insp Fox was asked to stop probing certain matters.

She will hear evidence from senior police including two assistant commissioners and two superintendents, as well as former policeman Troy Grant who is now a NSW Nationals MP.

The inquiry is concentrating on two priests - serial sex offender Father Denis McAlinden and convicted paedophile Father James Fletcher, both now dead.

The inquiry is continuing.