AUSTRALIA
The Australian
JARED OWENS
From:The Australian
April 22, 2013
HEARINGS conducted by the NSW Cunneen sex abuse inquiry will be closed to the public iif the witnesses are expected to give evidence of criminality.
A directions hearing in Sydney was this morning told the inquiry’s “in camera” sessions would not be limited to the evidence of sex abuse victims, but also “certain other relevant witnesses” whose evidence could relate to “future criminal proceedings”.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, said the public hearings would be held in private, “without access to them by the media or the general public”, so as “not to prejudice by pre-trial publicity any future criminal proceedings”.
Special Commissioner Margaret Cunneen is investigating the circumstances in which NSW Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was directed to cease investigating sexual abuse at the state’s notorious Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese, and whether church figures obstructed or hindered his investigations.
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