Abuse Cover-up Inquiry: Whistleblower Found to Be an Unsatisfactory Witness
The Guardian
Chief whistleblower Peter Fox has been found to be an unsatisfactory witness in a report into an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. However, the special commission of inquiry also found that the response by senior church officials into abuse claims made against two Catholic priests, who are both now dead, was ''inexcusable''. The 750-page report also said there is sufficient evidence to warrant the prosecution of a senior church official. The commission's four-volume report uncovered no evidence to show that senior police officers had tried to block child abuse investigations. It also found that Detective Inspector Peter Fox, who alleged that there had been a cover-up, was not a credible witness, and it was appropriate for police to instruct him to stop his own investigations. "Fox gave evidence that was untruthful," the report said. "The commission formed the view that Fox had engaged in conduct that was inconsistent with the integrity required of a police officer. "The commission formed the view that Fox had developed what amounted to an obsession about both the Catholic church and alleged conspiracies involving senior police." However, Fox vigorously defended himself and his actions after the report was handed down and told The Newcastle Herald that he would ‘‘not hesitate to walk the same path again’’. Fox, who has been on stress leave since the middle of 2012 and is close to finalising his employment with the NSW Police Force, told the Newcastle Herald that much of his evidence to the commission had been distorted. He suggested the commission had served more as a witch-hunt against him than an investigation into the cover-up of child sexual abuse. Three volumes of the report have been released, while the fourth is confidential. It also made adverse findings against Father William Burston and Monsignor Allan Hart, and found that senior church officials did have information relating to child sex abuse that would have assisted the police. "Each was found to be an unimpressive and/or unsatisfactory witness in some respects," the commission, headed by Margaret Cunneen, SC, found. The special commission of inquiry was announced by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell in November 2012, following explosive allegations made to the media by Fox. He alleged that the Catholic church had covered up evidence about pedophile priests in the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in the Hunter region of NSW. The commission said the behaviour of senior clergy, including the late Bishop Leo Clarke, former head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, and the late Monsignor Patrick Cotter, was ''inexcusable''. The ABC reported that the commission's report said Clarke, who was head of the diocese for 20 years, was motivated by a fear it would bring scandal on the church. "A substantial body of evidence before the commission confirmed that senior diocesan officials were aware at various times of reports or complaints that [Father Denis] McAlinden had sexually abused children, the first instance of reported abuse occurring in 1954 and involving victim AE," it said. "It took more than 40 years, however, for the diocese to report to police any aspect of McAlinden's offending history. "The evidence reveals a disturbing story of repeated inaction and failure on the part of church officials to report McAlinden to police." It found that information supplied to the police by Bishop Michael Malone, head of the diocese from 1995 to 2011, was both ''late and inaccurate''. The general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, Brian Lucas, was found to have failed to protect children in attempting to have a priest resign from the ministry rather than reporting him to police.
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