Detective Peter Fox Gave Two Versions on Priest Evidence

By Dan Box
The Australian
July 2, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/detective-peter-fox-gave-two-versions-on-priest-evidence/story-fngburq5-1226673187733

THE detective at the centre of a state government inquiry into church child abuse has given conflicting evidence under oath about claims that a former Catholic bishop told a pedophile priest he was under police investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry this morning the Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone tipped off the priest, Jim Fletcher, and potential evidence was destroyed as a result.

"It seemed a fully deliberate action by going out and telling Father Fletcher there was an investigation and who the victim was ... I did not see why he felt the need to expose those things to Fletcher at the time," he said.

Detective Fox initially claimed to have recorded his conversation with Bishop Malone in writing within days of the 2002 meeting, a claim which was repeated in his police statement used during Fletcher's trial.

The inquiry has heard, however, that he has also given evidence under oath that his written account of the conversation was in fact drawn up months later, and only after he learned that Fletcher would not be suspended as a priest.

The policeman denied that he was motivated to prepare the statement by the bishop's refusal to suspend Fletcher or restrict his access to children.

Fletcher, who was subsequently convicted of abusing an altar boy, died in jail in 2009. Bishop Malone, who retired in 2011, is due to give evidence to the inquiry later this week.