AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with video]
Police records accesssed under Freedom of Information laws have revealed that the Catholic Church tried to strike an agreement with NSW police to allow it withold information about paedophile priests.
Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Police records obtained under Freedom of Information laws have revealed that the Catholic Church was trying to strike an illegal agreement with the New South Wales Police, damaging to investigations of child sex abuse.
The police say the memorandum of understanding was never signed and never in force. But a senior official of the Catholic Church has told Lateline the agreement was in fact operational and the Catholic Church dealt with the police under its provisions. Under the draft agreement, the Church could withhold personnel files from police. That and other provisions were found to be in breach of the Crimes Act.
Steve Cannane has this exclusive report. The producer was Sashka Koloff.
STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: In recent years the Catholic Church has been accused of covering up child sexual abuse committed by its own clergy.
Now they’re being accused of trying to co-opt NSW Police to help them suppress evidence against paedophile priests.
This draft agreement between police and the Church contains clauses that would allow the Church to withhold evidence from police.
(female voiceover): “Church authorities shall make available the report of an assessment and any other matter relevant to the accused’s account of events only if required to do so by court order.”
GEOFFREY WATSON, BARRISTER: The point is that under our law, you must report it if you become aware of a serious criminal offence and you’ve got to give all the particulars of that. You’ve got to tell the police. When I looked at the MOUs, they were really in effect trying to get the police to condone the failure to comply with that law, or even perhaps worse, get the police to participate in it.
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