AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JASON GORDON May 6, 2013
SENIOR Newcastle police held informal discussions about charging former Newcastle Catholic Bishop Michael Malone with concealing serious child sex crimes, an inquiry has heard.
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 her opening address, Commissioner Cunneen said the sexual abuse of ‘‘inherently vulnerable children’’ represented a ‘‘reprehensible betrayal of trust’’. She noted the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle had a ‘‘very troubled history’’ of priests who had abused children.
Commissioner Cunneen said the inquiry would this week focus on allegations made by Detective Chief Inspector Fox in the Newcastle Herald and on ABC television’s Lateline program last November, during which he alleged he had been asked to cease his investigations into the church and that the church had attempted to cover up instances of child sexual abuse.
Inspector Fox took to the stand shortly after 11am today. He has told the inquiry he believed the diocese had warned former priest James Fletcher that he was being investigated by police.
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