AUSTRALIA
Camden-Narellon Advertiser
June 24, 2013.
NSW police whistleblower Peter Fox had “ridden on a saddle of lies” in his investigation into alleged cover-ups of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, a commission of inquiry in Newcastle has been told.
Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Little, appointed in late 2010 to head Strike Force Lantle to investigate the cover-up allegations, said there were “significant inaccuracies” in material Detective Chief Inspector Fox had passed on from his own investigation.
Detective Sergeant Little roundly rejected Detective Chief Inspector Fox’s earlier evidence to the inquiry, which resumed at Newcastle Supreme Court today after a five-week recess, that Strike Force Lantle was a “sham” and had been “set up to fail”. He said he had been “absolutely mortified by those comments”.
“If it was set up to be a sham, why would I have had the two things Fox didn’t have, that is, the support of my superiors, and a plan”.
The inquiry has heard evidence that Chief Inspector Fox held back evidence from Strike Force Lantle because he did not trust the police. Detective Sergeant Little said that in contrast to Chief Inspector Fox, “I was not operating in secret, I recorded things, I didn’t operate on speculation or manipulation of the truth”.
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.