AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013
DETECTIVE Chief Inspector Peter Fox raised concerns with senior police about alleged cover-ups of child abuse within the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church as early as 2004, a court heard Monday morning.
The Special Commission of Inquiry into the police handling of allegations against the church began in Newcastle Supreme Court this morning before Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC.
In opening statements, Commissioner Cunneen said the inquiry will this week focus on allegations made by Inspector Fox in the Newcastle Herald and on ABC television’s Lateline program last November where he alleged that he had been asked to cease his investigations into the church.
Counsel Assisting, Ms Lonergan SC, said the inquiry will consider whether or not Inspector Fox was asked to cease investigating the cover-up claims, what he had been investigating, and whether or not those matters were shelved or ‘‘put to one side because they were considered too complex’’.
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