AUSTRALIA
The Australian
DAN BOX From: The Australian July 10, 2013
A DETECTIVE at the centre of a state inquiry into church child abuse has been forced to defend his public claim that Catholic priests destroyed gay pornography that would have provided evidence in a criminal investigation.
In a 2012 interview with the ABC that led to the establishment of the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox claimed priests were “removing evidence and destroying it before we were able to secure it”.
Under cross-examination at the inquiry yesterday, Mr Fox said this was a reference to gay pornography found in a presbytery in 2003, when he was investigating the late pedophile priest Jim Fletcher.
Despite being told the magazines and videos belonged to someone else, Mr Fox said he continued to believe it was actually owned by Fletcher and did not have a “completely open” mind during his investigation.
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