Peter Fox turns up at Pell testimony

Herald Sun
February 28, 2016

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/peter-fox-turns-up-at-pell-testimony/news-story/f6cd432803ba6b973a0a74ea8d1ad119

Former police inspector Peter Fox, who alleged church and police cover-ups of pedophile priest offending in NSW's Hunter Valley, has turned up to support abuse victims attending the testimony of Cardinal George Pell in Rome.

Mr Fox, who calls himself a "self-funded retiree", is in Rome on holiday with his wife, Penny, but on Monday will be at the elegant Quirinale Hotel to hear Australia's senior Catholic cleric give evidence by video link to the child abuse royal commission sitting in Sydney.

Cardinal Pell will be questioned over three to four days about what he knew of historic pedophile activity by priests when he served in Ballarat and Melbourne.

He is chief of the Vatican's finances and has asked to give evidence by video link because of a heart condition that prevents him travelling to Australia.

Crowd funding has paid for a group of survivors and supporters to travel to Rome to hear the cardinal's testimony.

Mr Fox told AAP on Sunday that he had got to know many of the Ballarat abuse survivors and it was important to show support for them.

"Through all these sad and tragic stories, we've met some wonderful people along the way."

Mr Fox said accusations from some quarters that Cardinal Pell was the victim of a witch hunt by abuse survivors "full of hate" was totally wrong.

"They're all saying, 'we want answers'. We've got to know why this was allowed to happen and why it went on for so long and why someone didn't stop it."

He noted that Cardinal Pell was the country's senior Catholic cleric and served in areas where abuse happened.

"It's supposed to be at the top that the buck stops, but we're not hearing that. We're seeing a lot of finger pointing at either clergy who are deceased or others off on the periphery."

Mr Fox said one question needing an answer was why there were "hotbeds of abuse" in places such as Ballarat, Wollongong, Bathurst and the Hunter Valley.

"Was it because senior clergy failed to act and allowed it to fester in those areas or were offending priests being moved to those areas to centralise them? No one knows."

He said the royal commission was keen to get answers to such questions from an "insider" who should know - Cardinal Pell.

In 2014, a special commission of inquiry found that then detective chief inspector Fox's allegations of a police cover-up of child sex abuse claims in the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle could not be proven and he was not a credible witness.

Mr Fox has since left the force but sex abuse court cases against Catholic clergy in the diocese have been ongoing.