AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
TO clergy abuse victims, he is the serving officer who risked his career to speak out on Catholic Church cover-ups and inadequate police investigations, precipitating a NSW inquiry and then a national royal commission.
But to the NSW Police Force, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox is the officer who went rogue, who conspired with a Newcastle Herald journalist, leaked sensitive information, tried to undermine a strike force he was excluded from and then attacked personally anyone who challenged him.
Wayne Roser SC, barrister for Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, put that assessment of Mr Fox to the Special Commission of Inquiry on Monday, as its public hearings into abuse by priests James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden, and the police and Church’s handling of their offending, draw to a close.
Summing up for police, Mr Roser said Mr Fox was never ordered in late 2010 to cease investigating clergy child sex abuse – only to stay out of matters assigned to Strike Force Lantle.
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