AUSTRALIA
Big Pond News
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
A NSW commission of inquiry has heard a policewoman was not told a priest previous sexual assaults.
A policewoman investigating allegations that a Hunter Valley Catholic priest sexually abused a little girl was not told of his previous offending, a special NSW commission of inquiry has heard.
Detective senior constable Jacqueline Flipo also admitted on Wednesday she did not make inquiries of several government bodies, including Centrelink, Medicare and the taxation office, to help track down Fr Denis McAlinden.
The inquiry, before commissioner Margaret Cunneen in Newcastle Supreme Court, is examining how police and church leaders handled sexual abuse allegations against McAlinden and another priest, James Fletcher.
Constable Flipo said that for about three years, from July 2001, she investigated historic allegations that Fr McAlinden abused a girl when she was aged eight to 11.
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