AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)
Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Thursday 7 August 2014
A police officer who investigated early allegations of child sexual abuse by Marist Brother Gregory Sutton has added further testimony to claims Sutton was tipped off so he could evade arrest.
A royal commission is examining how the Marist Brothers responded to allegations of child abuse against Sutton and another of its former teachers.
Sutton was convicted in 1996 after pleading guilty to 67 charges of sexual assault against 15 children. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with a minimum term of 12 years, and was released in 2008.
Sutton’s identity had been legally hidden for almost 20 years until the beginning of this public hearing, when the presiding commissioner, Justice Jennifer Coate, overturned the suppression order.
In new evidence submitted to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Thursday, Detective Senior Constable Donna Lawrence said when she and fellow officers sought to arrest Sutton, they learned he was overseas and could not be found, and suspected he had been tipped off.
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