Newcastle police "can hold their heads high" after Commission of Inquiry: Scipione, by Jason Gordon, Newcastle Herald (June 2, 2014)

Newcastle police "can hold their heads high" after Commission of Inquiry: Scipione

POLICE Commissioner Andrew Scipione said Newcastle police can ‘‘hold their heads high’’ after the Special Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse cover-ups cleared them of any wrongdoing.

In Newcastle on Monday to unveil a memorial garden to the highly-regarded police officer, the late Tony Tamplin, Mr Scipione said he was proud of his officers who were found to have acted at all times with integrity and honesty.

The commissioner would not, however, answer questions regarding findings against detective chief inspector Peter Fox who the special commission found to have been ‘‘deliberately untruthful’’ and to have ‘‘exaggerated’’ his evidence.

Mr Fox, who is on extended sick leave but still a member of the NSW Police Force, had also alleged that some police failed to properly investigate claims of sexual abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese.

The commission found no evidence to back up those claims, nor that a ‘‘Catholic mafia’’ existed within the region’s police ranks.

Mr Scipione said the commission, headed by Margaret Cunneen SC, had ‘‘probed forensically into the role police played’’ throughout the investigation.

‘‘As the commission found, there was no credible evidence of any wrongdoing by those officers undertaking their investigations or their commanders,’’ Mr Scipione said.

‘‘Importantly, as this report has indicated, the community can have every confidence in the capacity and determination of NSW Police to listen and to investigate those crimes.

‘‘The issue of child abuse is one the NSW Police Force takes extremely seriously and has devoted significant resources to both investigate and prevent this type of crime.’’

Of the commission’s findings, Mr Scipione said officers involved in Strike Force Lantle could ‘‘hold their heads up high’’.

‘‘We are proud of them,’’ he said. ‘‘Their motivation was to seek justice for victims - they had no other motivation.

‘‘They can now get back on with their lives and do what they do best - protecting the community.

‘‘There are still matters to go before the court and there are investigations ongoing. That will never stop.’’

Mr Scipione said police continue to encourage any victim of alleged sexual abuse to report the matter to police in the first instance or, further, tell their story to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.