AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Emily Bourke
Updated 3 Oct 2014
The NSW Police Integrity Commission (PIC) has opened an investigation into agreements between the state’s police force and the Catholic Church which may have enabled the church to conceal information about child sexual abuse.
Last year, the ABC’s Lateline reported accusations that the church tried to strike a formal arrangement with police over how to handle abuse allegations and what information would be handed over for investigation.
There are questions over whether the memorandum of understanding was ever signed, approved or even in operation.
Operation Protea has now been set up to investigate such arrangements and whether there was any police misconduct between 1998 and 2005.
It will also look at the secondment of a senior police officer to an internal church committee which dealt with allegations of child abuse by clergy.
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