Detective Peter Fox 'Misleading' over Child Sex Abuse Probe

The Australian
June 24, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/detective-peter-fox-misleading-over-child-sex-abuse-probe/story-e6frg6nf-1226668799467

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, who revealed an alleged cover-up of child abuse by Catholic priests.

A DETECTIVE at the centre of a state government inquiry into child abuse within the Catholic church "has ridden to glory on a saddle of lies", according to one of his colleagues.

The NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, which resumed this morning, was set up after Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox publicly claimed he was "ordered to stand down" from the investigation of a pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

The officer in charge of that investigation, Jeff Little, told the hearing that many of Detective Fox's claims, including that the police Strike Force was "set up to fail" were untrue.

"I was absolutely mortified by those comments,'' Detective Sergeant Little said.

''The mere fact that he's ridden to glory on a saddle of lies at this point is a concern for me." 

Detective Little, whose investigation into the alleged cover-up of McAlinden's crimes by senior clergy ultimately ran to almost 3000 pages of evidence, said other of Detective Fox's claims were misleading.

Among these were a claim to have compiled a brief of evidence into a former Bishop of Newcastle, Michael Malone, for the alleged cover-up of pedophile abuse. No such report exists, Detective Little said.

An internal police report on the issue prepared by Detective Fox in 2010 also contained significant inaccuracies, Detective Little claimed. Partly as a result of this, Detective Fox had not been invited to join the investigation.

"It was a credibility issue," Detective Little said.