Detective Altered Police Record on Pedophile Priest Denis Mcalinden

By Dan Box
The Australian
May 9, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/detective-altered-police-record-on-pedophile-priest-denis-mcalinden/story-e6frg6nf-1226638583903

A NSW detective altered police computer records to list himself as the officer in charge of a pedophile investigation now at the centre of a state inquiry.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has previously claimed he was ordered to "stand down from the case" of an alleged cover-up surrounding pedophile priest Denis McAlinden in 2010.

Under cross-examination at the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry this morning, Detective Fox said he had previously altered the computer record of a past investigation into McAlinden, listing himself as the chief investigator and transferring the case to his local command.

Detective Fox denied that he had done this so he could subsequently claim, in a formal report to his bosses, that he had been investigating the priest for a decade and should be included in the ongoing investigation.

"That doesn't make sense. When you look at the documents, there's no logic behind that suggestion," he told the inquiry.

In the formal report, sent a few days after he altered the computer record, Detective Fox listed a number of other police investigations into pedophile priests in the NSW Hunter Valley, as well as the names of their alleged victims, and argued that he should be involved in an expanded inquiry.

He sent a draft of this report to a local journalist, Joanne McCarthy, before submitting it to senior officers, asking her to suggest amendments to the document, the inquiry heard.