Catholic Church still ‘impeding’ sex inquiries
Barney Zwartz June 26, 2013
The Catholic Church is still impeding police pursuit and conviction of clergy sex offenders, according to a former head of Victoria Police’s sexual crimes squad.
Former detective inspector Glenn Davies, who now works with victims of clergy sex abuse, says his experience of working with the church is that it is ”protectionist, elitist and dismissive of suggestions for change”.
Mr Davies, who resigned from Victoria Police last year after he admitted briefing journalists about then current investigations, made a submission to the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled clergy sexual abuse. This was posted on the inquiry website late on Tuesday.
Ten submissions were posted, including a defence of Towards Healing by one of its investigators, former police superintendent Paul Murnane, plus a second ”right of reply” by Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart.
Similar to the Victoria Police evidence, Mr Davies says both the Melbourne Response and the Towards Healing process that covers the rest of Australia ”are operating in a manner that is detrimental to the administration of justice and impeding the detecting, apprehending, prosecuting or convicting” of abusers.
He says many cases of suspected sexual abuse were reported to church authorities but not acted on, clergy were not removed and investigations were not carried out.
He lists 10 problems, suggesting the church processes ”actively and systematically dissuaded victims of sexual crime from reporting their victimisation to the police”, hindered police investigations, quickly provided suspects with details of the allegations which allowed the possible destruction of evidence, failed to protect the community, but provided protection and sanctuary to offenders.
Archbishop Hart’s right of reply, written on June 5, follows an earlier one written last October defending the church from scathing police criticism.
Tabling 39 pieces of correspondence between church and police from 1996 to last year, he says the police have provided no evidence for their allegations. Far from an alleged lack of engagement with police, the church co-operated extensively, did not dissuade victims from reporting and did not hinder police investigations.
It did not alert suspects about allegations, and did not move offenders to evade investigation after 1996, he says.
http://m.smh.com.au/victoria/catholic-church-still-impeding-sex-inquiries-20130625-2ov80.html
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Catholic church attempted to conceal sexual abuse evidence
FOI file reveals church tried to strike agreement with NSW police which would conceal evidence against accused priests
- theguardian.com,ÂÂ
The Catholic church believed it had an understanding with the NSW police in 2003 that allowed it to conceal evidence against paedophile priests, a freedom of information (FOI) document reveals.
The file, accessed through FOI laws by NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge and obtained by ABC’s Lateline, documents the Catholic church’s attempt to co-opt NSW police to enter into the illegal agreement.
“Church authorities shall make available the report of an assessment and any other matter relevant to the accused’s account of events only if required to do so by court order,” the unsigned draft memorandum read.
Catholic Commission for Employment Relations executive director Michael McDonald wrote to the NSW child protection squad on 18 June 2003 seeking confirmation the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was still in place.
In response, Kim McKay from the child protection squad advised no agreement ever existed.
“The arrangements proposed by the draft MOU appear to be in direct conflict with the explicit legislative requirement of section 316 of the Crime Act,” he wrote on 20 August 2003.
It’s unclear how long the church had been acting according the draft MOU.
Michael Salmon, who was the Catholic church’s point of contact for police at the time, provided a statement to Lateline confirming the church had operated under the unsigned agreement.
“The church assumed it was operational, we were practising the provisions of the MOU and dealing with the police under those provisions,” he said.
“We had an understanding from police it was approved.”
Shoebridge said it was unclear how many cases were dealt with by the church under this assumption.
“It’s likely that hundreds, if not more than that, cases were processed through this MOU,” he told ABC.
“Processed in a way that didn’t protect victims, didn’t assist the police in prosecuting for crimes, but protected the good name of the church.”
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