NSW Police struck deal with Churches child abuse cases
Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 11:24 pm
New South Wales Police have been accused of complicity in a Catholic Church bid to limit the release of incriminating evidence about child abuse.
Church leaders thought they had struck a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with police about what information would be handed over.
But police deny there was any arrangement, in a deal that might have led to breaches of the Crimes Act.
Now NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says New South Wales police were pushing an arrangement of their own.
Documents released under Freedom of Information show that senior police actively pursued the Anglican and Catholic Churches to agree on procedures for what evidence would be handed over.
Police also wanted the New South Wales Health Department and the Education Department to be a party to the arrangement.
"It's hard to accept the police claims of innocence at face value when we know that, at least up until the middle of 2005 they were actively progressing their own memoranda with the Catholic Church, which had every bit as offensive a set of terms in it" Mr Shoebridge said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-04/n ... ch/5000106
Church leaders thought they had struck a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with police about what information would be handed over.
But police deny there was any arrangement, in a deal that might have led to breaches of the Crimes Act.
Now NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says New South Wales police were pushing an arrangement of their own.
Documents released under Freedom of Information show that senior police actively pursued the Anglican and Catholic Churches to agree on procedures for what evidence would be handed over.
Police also wanted the New South Wales Health Department and the Education Department to be a party to the arrangement.
"It's hard to accept the police claims of innocence at face value when we know that, at least up until the middle of 2005 they were actively progressing their own memoranda with the Catholic Church, which had every bit as offensive a set of terms in it" Mr Shoebridge said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-04/n ... ch/5000106