AUSTRALIA
The Australian
October 24, 2016
PIA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@pia_akerman
PETER HOYSTED
ColumnistCanberra
@JacktheInsider
A detective who helped build the case against one of the country’s most notorious pedophiles has revealed he urged his superiors to establish a taskforce to properly investigate the scourge of clerical sexual abuse and how he lamented the general lack of resourcing by the force.
Former detective sergeant Blair Smith said he was shocked to learn the extent of pedophilia within Catholic institutions when it first came across his desk in 1993, sparking years of “a total fight” with the church.
Mr Smith, who was part of a small Victoria Police unit investigating domestic violence and sexual assaults, has spoken publicly for the first time in The Australian’s podcast Ballarat’s Children.
He said he had received minimal support from his commanding officers as he pursued allegations of child sexual abuse against former Christian Brother Edward (Ted) Dowlan.
“I recall saying to someone — and it probably would have been the chief inspector — ‘these files and all these clerical complaints should have been handled by a taskforce’,” Mr Smith said.
“You’re like a one-man band …. as it goes up the ladder, it’s just another file.”
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