Senior Catholics to Take Nsw Witness Stand

The Sbs
June 11, 2013

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1776983/No-contempt-charge-for-cop-whistleblower

Whistleblower Peter Fox won't face a contempt charge over a tweet he sent during a court hearing.

A detective won't face a contempt charge over a tweet he sent during a court hearing into claims the Catholic Church covered up child sex abuse.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson will be among witnesses grilled behind closed doors as an inquiry into the handling of allegations of child sex abuse by Hunter Valley priests enters its second phase.

The special commission of inquiry began in Newcastle last month and is focusing on how police and church officials handled sex abuse allegations, particularly those involving serial sex offender Father Denis McAlinden and convicted pedophile Father James Fletcher, who are both dead.

The first stage of the inquiry, which examined whether local Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox had been asked to stop investigating abuse, is expected to wrap up with a final week of public hearings later this month.

Witnesses for the second phase of the inquiry, examining whether Catholic Church officials helped or hindered police investigations, were unveiled on Tuesday.

Public hearings into this second term of reference are slated to begin on July 1.

Counsel assisting the commission Julia Lonergan SC said they would include testimony from Bishops William Wright and Michael Malone, Monsignor Allan Hart and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference secretary Father Brian Lucas.

Ms Lonergan told a directions hearing in Sydney a handful of witnesses would give evidence in camera, including victim Peter Gogarty and Archbishop Wilson.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC told the Sydney hearing she did not plan to refer Det Insp Fox for a possible contempt charge over a message he sent via the social networking site Twitter.

In a tweet sent from the inquiry courtroom on May 13, Det Insp Fox reported Detective Inspector David Waddell as saying he had tried in 2010 to close down a police strike force investigating sex abuse allegations involving Catholic priests.

Barrister Patrick Saidi, representing several high-ranking NSW officers, said the tweet was "at odds" with the evidence and called on Ms Cunneen to refer the matter for consideration of a contempt charge against Det Insp Fox.

But on Tuesday the commissioner said she would not do so.

"Although I regard myself as having power to refer the matter of the potential contempt for consideration by the registrar of the Supreme Court, in the present case I am not persuaded that I should exercise this power," she wrote in her decision.

Det Insp Fox's barrister had argued in written submissions that Ms Cunneen, as special commissioner, did not have the authority to refer him for a possible contempt charge.

Ms Cunneen found the act of tweeting about evidence from a hearing room did not necessarily involve contempt but she would "firmly discourage" any witness from tweeting about evidence given by any other witness.

She is due to report on the inquiry by the end of September.