AUSTRALIA
Sky News
A senior police whistleblower’s office was searched while he was away on leave, an inquiry into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the NSW Hunter Valley will hear.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Julia Lonergan SC, told its first hearing in Newcastle on Monday that evidence relating to Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox would be presented to the inquiry.
Ms Lonergan said evidence would show Insp Fox – whose allegations sparked the commission – pursued investigations that he kept to himself, rather than logging through official police channels.
In 2012 he was removed from any investigative role into sexual abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, and later that year he had become so concerned by the “absence of any obvious investigations” that he appeared on ABC TV’s Lateline program to air his claims.
Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC said in her opening remarks the diocese had a “troubled history” of sexual abuse by clergymen, and many people had been deeply affected by such “abhorrent” crimes.
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