AUSTRALIA
7 News
ABC
BY COURT REPORTER CANDICE MARCUS
March 18, 2014
A detective was “furious” and “horrified” that an investigation into a paedophile ring was prematurely shut down, a royal commission in Adelaide has heard.
The inquiry, which is examining the sexual abuse of intellectually disabled students from St Ann’s Special School more than two decades ago, today heard Assistant Police Commissioner Colin Watkins ordered the investigation cease in 1993.
Detective Sergeant Leonid Mosheev was under intense questioning from Sophie David, who is counsel assisting the inquiry, throughout day two of the hearing into the case.
Detective Sergeant Mosheev said two years after school bus driver Brian Perkins was initially identified as having molested the intellectually disabled students, he was tasked with investigating Perkins, who was one of four paedophiles targeted under Operation Deny.
He said in 1993 he received an order, which he believed was from Assistant Commissioner Watkins, to shut down the operation and not investigate the St Ann’s case any further.
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