AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
June 25, 2013
Catherine Armitage
Senior Writer
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell invited journalist Joanne McCarthy to a meeting with police so she could ”give them some tips” on handling allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church’s Maitland-Newcastle diocese.
McCarthy, a Fairfax Media reporter, told a commission of inquiry in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday she thought the suggestion was ”bizarre”. She said it ”threw me” to have been asked at the meeting by police for names and numbers of abuse victims, and she ”didn’t want to be there”.
She had earlier called Mr Mitchell to ”get angry with him” over police treatment of a victim who had offered a statement, with McCarthy’s encouragement.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.