Abuse Cop 'Wanted Bosses Pursued'

By Dan Box
The Australian
June 25, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/abuse-cop-wanted-bosses-pursued/story-e6frgczx-1226669019726

A FAIRFAX reporter who spent years working with the detective at the centre of a NSW government inquiry into Catholic church child abuse said yesterday the policeman might have been motivated by a personal agenda against his colleagues.

The reporter, Joanne McCarthy of The Newcastle Herald, moved to distance herself from the detective, Peter Fox, telling the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry that "my job, as he sees it, is to criticise the NSW Police".

The inquiry was established after Detective Chief Inspector Fox publicly claimed he was "ordered to stand down" from the investigation into an alleged cover-up relating to a pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.

"He believed that he should have been involved in the investigation," McCarthy told the inquiry. "That's his position."

In a 2010 email sent to McCarthy, two years before he went public with his claims, Chief Inspector Fox said he hoped to withhold witness statements he had taken from police investigating the alleged conspiracy. This email went on to state that two of his superior officers were "practising Catholics", although McCarthy told the inquiry she "didn't buy into" the policeman's argument.