AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
October 16, 2014
Paul Bibby
Court Reporter
COURTS
The former head of the NSW Police Force’s child protection command has admitted she knew the Catholic Church’s practice of “blind reporting” child sex abuse to police was against the law but she accepted it because “it kept the conversation going”.
Kim McGee made the comments during a emotional day of evidence before the NSW Police Integrity Commission on Thursday.
The police regulator is examining allegations police were complicit in the covering up of allegations of child sex abuse by the Catholic Church.
The former chief of the force’s Child Protection Enforcement Agency broke down as she spoke of the difficulties she faced in trying to get victims of child sexual abuse to come forward.
“We worked so hard to encourage them to report the crimes,” Ms McGee said, crying.
“Particularly women in Aboriginal communities.”
But the retired officer defended her acceptance of the practice of blind reporting, where the Catholic Church would report the details of an alleged sex abuse offence, but not the name of the alleged victim.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.