AUSTRALIA
ABC – Lateline
[with video]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 25/06/2013
Reporter: Susie Smith
The Newcastle inquiry into a coverup of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has heard evidence that a senior figure within the Church covered up the crimes of a paedophile priest.
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The New South Wales Premier’s Department has tonight ordered an investigation into the shredding of police and Catholic Church documents by a member of the sex crime squad.
Last week Lateline revealed details of a senior police officer shredding records of meetings she’d had with Catholic Church officials who had been assessing child sex abuse cases. The meetings took place over five years.
Meanwhile the New South Wales inquiry into sexual abuse by the clergy in the Hunter Valley has heard today that a former bishop of Newcastle Maitland released key internal Church documents to a victim triggering one of the biggest police investigations into clergy cover up in Australia.
The special commission of inquiry is investigating allegations by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox of cover ups by police and the Church of child sexual abuse. Susie Smith reports from Newcastle.
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