AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Michelle Ainsworth, Mitchell Toy
From:Herald Sun
November 09, 2012
SEXUAL crimes police and victim advocates say the Catholic Church cannot be trusted to conduct internal investigations and eliminate child sexual abuse.
Speaking at the inquiry into child sexual abuse by church officials, Patrick Tidmarsh, an adviser with Victoria Police’s Sexual Offences Child Sexual Abuse Investigations Team, said church investigations, even by independent investigators, would be swayed from justice.
“I don’t think they should be investigating themselves – that is absolutely the number one issue,” Mr Tidmarsh said.
“That crucial independence must surely be absent. You can call somebody independent but that doesn’t mean they are so.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.