Dark Secret: Exposing the cover up of American Church child abuse

By Annie Macgregor
ABC - Four Corners
July 17, 2017

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2017/07/17/4703003.htm

"It was tough, it was brutal. It was very long searching, to get what we wanted." Former District Attorney

In the American city of Philadelphia, in the early 2000s, a team of skilled and dedicated lawyers embarked on an investigation led by a formidable District Attorney. What they uncovered was the hidden story of one of the worst criminal cover-ups in America's history.

"I was shocked because it was so sickening, and I was shocked by how many perpetrators there were. I was shocked by how long it had gone on and by how many people knew about it and didn't do anything." Former Assistant District Attorney

The investigation began with a simple question: Why, in 50 years, had only one Catholic priest been officially investigated for child abuse? In a city with a strong Catholic presence, this seemed remarkable, at a time when revelations of clergy abuse were making headlines across America. Shocking cases in another US city, Boston, prompted DA Lynne Abraham to ask whether the same thing could have occurred in her town.

"I got together a group of my investigators and I said... I think it is worth a look and an investigation." Former District Attorney, Lynne Abraham

What they uncovered - a hidden history of abuse and deception - shook the investigators and their community to the core.

"I remember just like opening up the boxes - I'm like reading this and you put one file down and then you read the next one and it was like 'oh my god'...I would cry a lot of times too, you know, and then I'd go home and drink a lot of whisky." Former Prosecutor

Equally shocking were the lengths the Catholic Church hierarchy went to, to keep their secrets hidden.

"I said, look, you can resist me all you want. I am going to subpoena you, I'm going to drag you into court every day and you're going to have to tell a judge why you won't release files of people whom you know have sexually abused little children." Former DA

Their major breakthrough came when they found one senior church elder who was prepared to break the informal code of silence, and tell the truth.

"He was the only one in the sort of inner circle of the administration that actually sat down and you know talked to us - talked to us without a lawyer - you know cooperated with us - everybody else in the hierarchy of the church refused to talk to us." Former Prosecutor

For the first time, in this program by film-maker Annie MacGregor, the then District Attorney and her team of prosecutors, investigators and expert advisors, come together to give a step by step account of how they took on the powerful Catholic church establishment in Philadelphia to expose its dark secrets.

"The more they tried to make deals with us the more suspicious we began to think that this is big. This is really big. So, what we started out with, something that might have been relatively small, got bigger because they started to push back very, very, very aggressively." Former District Attorney

The fallout from this landmark inquiry continues, with one leading Church official still before the courts in America.

Dark Secret, directed by Annie Macgregor and presented by Sarah Ferguson, goes to air on Monday 17th July at 8.30pm EDT. It is replayed on Tuesday 18th July at 10.00am and Wednesday 19th at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC NEWS channel on Saturday at 8.00pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.