AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
October 17, 2014
Paul Bibby
A NSW Police Inspector learnt about scores of child sex abuse cases while on a Catholic Church advisory committee but did not report any of the information back to the force, the police watchdog has heard.
The officer told the NSW Police Integrity Commission on Friday that her role was that of an “adviser or liaison” not as an “investigator or conduit of information”.
The Commission is investigating whether police engaged in misconduct through their participation in the Catholic Church’s professional standard’s research group – a body set up to advise the church as it dealt with complaints of clergy abuse through its controversial “towards healing” program.
On Friday, the sole police representative on the research group, Inspector Elizabeth Cullen – who was a senior sergeant at the time of her involvement – told the Commission that she saw numerous case summaries setting out allegations of child sexual abuse, but never took them back to her police colleagues.
This included one case summary, from June 2001, where a member of the clergy was referred to as “likely to be a serious, serial offender”.
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