14-10-2014, 10:28 AM
Magda Hassan Wrote:Nice little intelligence sharing racket between the Catholic Church and the NSW police exposed in the ongoing Child Abuse Royal Commission. Neither encouraged victims to seek justice. Continue the cover up and business as usual.
Quote:Police agreed with Catholic Church not to encourage child sex abuse victims to come forward, inquiry hearshttp://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-agreed-...15vzq.html
Date October 14, 2014 - 3:41PM
Paul Bibby
Court Reporter
The NSW Police Force had an informal agreement with the Catholic Church not to encourage victims of child sexual abuse to come forward, particularly if they were reluctant to make a formal police statement, the Police Integrity Commission has heard.
The Police Integrity Commission is examining how the church and police have co-operated from the late 1990s until today in dealing with scores of abuse complaints against priests and other church employees.
It follows highly publicised allegations that the two bodies effectively conspired to cover-up child sex abuse.
The commission is focusing on the church's Professional Standards Office, and the Professional Standards Resource Group (PSRG) - a body made up of senior church members, police officers and other community members.
On Tuesday the commission heard that the church had a policy of not giving the name of abuse victims to police if they said they did not want to make a formal statement.
The commission heard that this policy - a breach of mandatory reporting laws - was condoned and even agreed to by police in the late 1990s.
"The police have agreed and kept to their agreement that they will not attempt to identify complainants or put any pressure on them to come forward," the former head of the PSRG, John Davoren, said in an internal memorandum read to the commission on Tuesday.
When asked about this memo, Mr Davoren denied that this was the practice.
"Did you reach such an agreement?" counsel assisting the commission Kristina Stern, SC, said.
"No, I have no memory of that agreement," Mr Davoren replied.
"I don't understand why I would have put that in the report."
However, the commission also heard that in the late 1990s the NSW Police Force and the church had formulated an unsigned draft Memorandum of Understanding in which they tentatively agreed that victims of abuse would be "advised" of their right to go to the police but not encouraged to do so or made aware of mandatory reporting obligations.
It also stated that "the police force will not institute proceedings against an alleged offender where the victim does not want this to occur".
Mr Davoren defended the church's practice of not disclosing the names of victims to police if those victims said they did not wish to make a police statement.
"Many people were reluctant to go to the police and if we indicated that they should and if we said at the beginning 'anything you say may be handed over to the police', some of them would have stood up and walked out," he said.
The hearing continues.
Is there any hint of Oz intelligence involvement in this - as in some of the UK stories - or is it simply the police scratching Catholic backs?
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14