Catholic Church tried to strike deal with police over child sexual abuse investigations

Updated

The Catholic Church tried to strike an agreement with New South Wales Police that would have helped shut down investigations into paedophile priests and placed police in breach of the Crimes Act.

Police records, accessed under freedom of information laws by Greens MP David Shoebridge, show two attempts were made to finalise memorandums of understanding (MOUs) between police and the church over how to deal with complaints of sexual and physical abuse by Catholic Church personnel.

The first agreement, which was unsigned, includes a clause that reads: "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."

Barrister Geoffrey Watson SC says the agreement would have placed police in breach of the Crimes Act.

"If you become aware of a serious criminal offence, you've got to tell the police," he told the ABC's Lateline program.

"When I looked at the MOUs they were really in effect trying to get the police to condone the failure to comply with that law, or even perhaps worse, get the police to participate in that."

NSW Police say neither memorandum of understanding was ever signed, or in force.

We had a line of communications with the police and all indications from the police were that the MOU was approved from their end. Michael Salmon, director of the Professional Standards Resource Group of the Catholic Church in NSW

But a senior official with the Catholic Church has told Lateline an agreement was operational and the church dealt with police under the provisions of the first draft agreement.

"We were practising the provisions of the MOU and dealing with the police under those provisions," said Michael Salmon, director of the Professional Standards Resource Group of the Catholic Church in NSW.

"We had an understanding from police it was approved.

"We had a line of communications with the police and all indications from the police were that the MOU was approved from their end."

But NSW Police deny the agreement was ever in place.

In a statement a spokesperson said: "The Church continued to cooperate with NSW Police but it did so without any protections assumed in an MOU, as such protections would not have been valid given the requirements of Section 316 of the Crimes Act."

Records show two draft agreements were negotiated

The police file shows communications between the church and police about the agreement.

In June 2003 Michael McDonald from the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations wrote to the Child Protection Squad: "I, therefore, seek your confirmation that the unsigned memorandum of understanding with the police remains in place."

The Catholic Church could not tell Lateline why Mr McDonald was writing to the police, but Kim McKay from the Child Protection Squad was unequivocal in her written response to Mr McDonald.

"Please note that his (sic) draft unsigned MOU has not been approved by the NSW Police Service, and the arrangements proposed by the MOU are not currently in place," she said.

"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."

Before this letter was sent by Superintendent McKay, the church was under the assumption the agreement was in place.

Mr Shoebridge wonders how many sexual abuse cases were dealt with under these provisions.

"It's likely that hundreds, if not more than that were processed through this MOU, and 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 and effectively prevented the police from getting the key evidence to prosecute any accused priest," he said.

After Superintendent McKay had made it clear in her letter that the unsigned agreement would have breached the Crimes Act, the church and police started negotiations to draft another agreement.

The second draft agreement, dated August 2004, includes a clause that states: "The Catholic Church or (additional party) shall make available the report of an assessment and any other matter relevant to the accused's account of events only if authorised in writing by the accused or if required to do so by court order."

Mr Shoebridge says the second draft agreement goes even further than the first one.

"The church wanted to effectively give the accused priest a veto power about whether or not to provide crucial information to the police - utterly extraordinary when you think that that's less than a decade ago."

This second agreement was prepared by NSW Police, but a police spokesman told Lateline it was never considered a workable document and never endorsed.

Topics: catholic, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, police, nsw, australia, newcastle-2300

First posted