Former Commander Defends Blind Reporting

Sky News
October 16, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/local/sydney/2014/10/16/former-commander-defends-blind-reporting.html

A former NSW child protection squad commander has defended the system of blind reporting of sex abuse cases by the Catholic Church to police, saying it has kept open the lines of communication.

But Kim McGee only considered information about sex abuse from a key church- and police-sanctioned body as intelligence reports, and not reports of crimes.

'In some regard it kept conversations open between the church and police,' Ms McGee told the Police Integrity Commission in response to a question about blind reporting.

'It opened up a lot of things that were very problematic with the law in this area.'

The retired policewoman, who was at the Child Protection Enforcement Agency (CPEA) in 2003, said the blind reports provided valuable intelligence.

'Sometimes as a result of those intelligence reports we were able to solve other crimes,' she said.

Blind reporting was where the church's Professional Standards Office (PSO) gave police details of an alleged sex offender but not details about the victim.

The inquiry has established that in some instances PSO information given to police said the victim did not want further police involvement, when in fact they did.

When shown one such report on Wednesday, that detailed a violent incident between a sex abuse survivor and their alleged offender, Ms McGee said she did not consider it to be a report of a crime.

'You have someone's opinion that something has happened somewhere,' she said.

'It's not a report of a crime.'

Counsel assisting Kristina Stern asked Ms McGee if she knew the child protection squad wasn't getting all available information from the church, even in the cases of serious criminal conduct.

'I can't say I have ever turned my mind to it,' she said.

'It would be an assumption I would make if I had.'

The inquiry heard Ms McGee was also shown legal advice that the blind reporting system could not work along side the legal responsibilities of police.

Ms McGee replied 'no' when asked by Ms Stern if she did anything to change the practice.

Ms McGee's comments were occasionally met with loud guffaws from the audience and at one stage she broke down during her evidence.

'We worked so hard to get them to report the crimes,' she said of her time at the squad.

The commission is looking at the extent of an agreement between the Catholic Church and the NSW police force to handle information about abuse claims.

The inquiry will also focus on the role of Inspector Elizabeth Cullen, who served as a liaison on the PSO's support arm, the Professional Standards Resource Group.

The hearings continue on Friday.