AUSTRALIA
Maitland Mercury
By ELLE WATSON July 4, 2013
Whistleblower Peter Fox knows of three Hunter sexual abuse victims who refuse to come forward to police because they fear retribution from the church.
The detective chief inspector told the special commission of inquiry yesterday that reprisals from members of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese not only extended to victims but church officials, including a Lochinvar nun whose order ostracised her because she gave evidence against paedophile priest James Fletcher.
The sister told Chief Inspector Fox she was asked to leave the order – St Joseph’s of Lochinvar – after her evidence assisted in the prosecution of the sexual predator in 2005.
During his second day in the witness box, the chief inspector said he knew of victims and their families who were no longer welcomed at church, whose cars had been vandalised and eggs thrown at their homes after reporting the abuse.
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