AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net
Lewis Blayse
Proceedings at the New South Wales Government enquiry into clerical child sexual abuse should be rather lively when it resumes public hearings next week. Local Greens upper-house politician, David Shoebridge MLC, has obtained documents under the Freedom of Information laws, which indicate that NSW police were in the habit of routinely shredding documents provided by a Catholic Church committee on clerical abuses. This happened 60 times over a five-year period from 1998 to 2003.
At the risk of posting an overly-long article, full details of this important development are given below.
The top-level group, established by the Catholic Church’s bishops, was known as the Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG). It comes under the auspices of Cardinal George Pell (see previous postings). It was created in 1997 in response to the Wood Royal Commission into the police and paedophilia, and its key function was to advise the church on specific cases involving clergy and others. The police liaison officer who shredded the documents was Sergeant Beth Cullen, of the Sex Crimes Unit. Shortly after her stint with the Catholic Church committee, she became Inspector Beth Cullen, an extraordinarily rapid rise through the ranks. Inspector Cullen now heads the Wagga Wagga Local Area Command.
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