AUSTRALIA
International Business Times
By Athena Yenko | June 25, 2013
Joanne McCarthy, Newcastle Herald reporter, admitted in the Newcastle Supreme Court that NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell had summoned her for a “bizarre” request that “threw” her off and made her wish she was not there.
Ms. McCarthy said that the Commissioner requested for some tips on how to handle allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church’s Maitland-Newcastle diocese. She said that during the meeting, the Commissioner probed for names and numbers of all the abused victims.
Ms. McCarthy thinks that the “bizarre” request was provoked by a prior incident when she encouraged a sexual abuse victim to give a statement to the Commissioner. During the incident, she called for the victim to “get angry with him” referring to how the inquiring police handled the victim.
Ms. McCarthy also admitted flinching over accusations that she was “in league” with priest child abuse whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox or that her “alliance” made her took his side exclusively. She strongly denied allegations that she supported Inspector Fox’s “agenda against certain police.” She made it clear that her primary objective was “get the victims looked after.”
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