AUSTRALIA
Sky News
A former NSW child protection squad commander has defended the system of blind reporting of sex abuse cases by the Catholic Church to police, saying it has kept open the lines of communication.
But Kim McGee only considered information about sex abuse from a key church- and police-sanctioned body as intelligence reports, and not reports of crimes.
‘In some regard it kept conversations open between the church and police,’ Ms McGee told the Police Integrity Commission in response to a question about blind reporting.
‘It opened up a lot of things that were very problematic with the law in this area.’
The retired policewoman, who was at the Child Protection Enforcement Agency (CPEA) in 2003, said the blind reports provided valuable intelligence.
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