AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By MICHELLE HARRIS Oct. 17, 2014.
A POLICE officer never reported or told her superiors of the dozens of cases of child sexual abuse she learnt of through her involvement with a Catholic Church advisory group, telling the police watchdog ‘‘that wasn’t my role’’.
Inspector Elizabeth Cullen rejected any conflict of interest between her membership from 1999 to 2005 of the Church’s Professional Standards Resources Group, which was set up to consider abuse victims’ complaints, and her responsibilities as an officer.
In her evidence to the Police Integrity Commission on Friday, she said she was a member of the group to provide her expert advice to the Church on addressing child sexual abuse and was not a ‘‘police liaison or…conduit of information’’.
The NSW Police Force had not expected her to make such reports, she said.
The commission is considering whether police ‘‘condoned’’ the Church withholding information from police about clergy abuse.
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