The NSW Police Force had an informal agreement with the Catholic Church not to encourage victims of child sexual abuse to come forward, particularly if they were reluctant to make a formal statement, the Police Integrity Commission has heard.
The evidence emerged on Tuesday as the commission continued its examination of how the church and police have co-operated from the late 1990s until today in dealing with scores of abuse complaints against priests and other church employees.
It follows highly publicised allegations that the two bodies effectively conspired to cover up child sex abuse.
The commission is focusing on the church's Professional Standards Office, and the Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) - a body made up of senior church members, police officers and community members.
The commission heard that the church had a policy of not giving the names of abuse victims to police if the victims chose to deal with the church rather than police.
Instead, police were provided with a "blind report" which set out the allegations and the alleged perpetrator but did not identify the complainant.
This made it difficult for police to interview the victim and lay criminal charges.
The commission heard that this policy was condoned and even agreed to by police in the late 1990s and early 2000s, despite the fact that section 316 of the NSW Crimes Act required disclosure of all information to police when there was a suggestion of a serious indictable offence.
"The police have agreed and kept to their agreement that they will not attempt to identify complainants or put any pressure on them to come forward," the former head of the PSRG, John Davoren, said in an internal memorandum read to the commission on Tuesday.
When asked about this memo, Mr Davoren denied that this was the practice.
However, the commission also heard that in the late 1990s the NSW Police Force and the church had formulated an unsigned draft memorandum of understanding in which the former tentatively agreed that victims of abuse would be "advised" of their right to go to the police but not encouraged to do so or made aware of mandatory reporting obligations.
It also stated that "the police force will not institute proceedings against an alleged offender where the victim does not want this to occur".
"Many people were reluctant to go to the police and if we indicated that they should and if we said at the beginning 'anything you say may be handed over to the police' some of them would have stood up and walked out," Mr Davoren said in defence of the practice.
Later, the commission heard that the pro-forma complaint form used by the church was pre-written with the word "no" already recorded as an answer to the question of whether a complainant was "willing to speak to police if necessary".
The convenor of the PSRG, Michael Salmon, said any suggestion of a cover-up was "preposterous".
The hearing continues.