AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Jessica Kidd
Fri 17 Oct 2014
A senior police officer who sat on an internal Catholic Church panel set up to manage allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy says it was not her role to report that information back to New South Wales Police, an inquiry has heard.
The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) is investigating whether then-Senior Sergeant Elizabeth Cullen’s appointment to the Church’s Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) amounted to police misconduct. She is now an Inspector.
It is also examining whether an information-sharing arrangement between the Church and the police breached mandatory reporting laws set out in the NSW Crimes Act.
The commission heard Inspector Cullen was privy to individual cases of alleged sexual abuse by members of the clergy when she sat on the PSRG from 1999 until 2005, while working in the Child Protection Enforcement Agency.
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