AUSTRALIA
ABC News
[with audio]
A special commission of inquiry into allegations that a Catholic mafia in New South Wales colluded with the Church to cover up child sexual abuse by clergy has today handed down its findings. But the main target of its criticism is the man who became a national champion for child abuse survivors when he blew the whistle on so-called ‘sham’ investigations that were ‘set up to fail’. Detective chief inspector Peter Fox has been labelled in the report as an obsessive and a zealot, whose evidence lacked any credibility. But the public report of the inquiry is also notable for what’s not in it. There are also adverse credibility findings about senior church officials, but they’re in a confidential volume of the report that won’t be released until potential criminal proceedings have been determined.
Transcript
MARK COLVIN: A special commission of inquiry into allegations that a Catholic mafia in New South Wales colluded with the Church to cover up child sexual abuse by clergy handed down its findings today.
But the main target of its criticism is the man who became a national champion for child abuse survivors when he blew the whistle on so-called “sham” investigations that were, as he put it, “set up to fail”.
Detective chief inspector Peter Fox has been labelled in the report as an obsessive and a zealot, whose evidence lacked any credibility.
But the public report of the inquiry is also notable for what’s not in it.
There are also adverse credibility findings about senior church officials, but they’re in a confidential volume of the report that won’t be released until potential criminal proceedings have been determined.
Our coverage tonight begins with this report from Nick Grimm.
NICK GRIMM: “Evil flourishes when good men do nothing:” It was that saying that galvanised Peter Fox to speak out about his experiences as a New South Wales detective, continually frustrated in his effort to investigate paedophile priests within the Catholic Church.
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