MELBOURNE'S Catholic Archdiocese has failed to announce or fully
implement changes requested by Victoria Police to the church's sexual
abuse inquiry process, more than a year after serious deficiencies were
exposed.
The failure has sparked fierce criticism from victim
groups and lawyers and comes with police recently launching two separate
investigations into sexual abuse involving a serving and a former
Victorian priest.
Sources close to the church have said that police have
requested it to revamp its inquiry process to ensure that priests under
investigation for sexual offences by detectives are not in effect tipped
off by the church's chief abuse investigator, Peter O'Callaghan, QC,
that they are the subject of a police probe.
Church sources also confirmed to The Age that
the police had serious concerns about Mr O'Callaghan's practice of
comparing himself to a royal commissioner, despite the fact that he is
appointed and paid for by the church.
The sources also said police had called for the
establishment of a formal point of contact in the force, after concerns
that allegations of sexual assault that should be investigated by police
had been confined to the church's inquiry process.
But the revamp of the church's inquiry process has also
been slowed by Victoria Police's recent ban on striking memorandums of
understanding with private organisations, after controversy about the
police's agreements with the AFL and the builders of the desalination
plant.
The Melbourne Archdiocese has been consulting with the
police throughout the year in the hope of getting formal approval for
their process.
The police's scrapping of all agreements also imperils
the 1996 endorsement by the police of the Melbourne Response - the
system of inquiring into sexual abuse in the church created by then
Melbourne archbishop George Pell.
The changes to Mr O'Callaghan's inquiry process were sought by police after revelations in The Age
in August and December last year that he had in effect revealed to two
priests that they were the subject of covert police investigations.
One of the priests was later convicted of sexual assault and the other is facing charges.
The tip-offs occurred due to a flaw in Mr O'Callaghan's
inquiry process that arose when a police investigation started after Mr
O'Callaghan's private inquiry had already begun.
In a move that angered detectives, Mr O'Callaghan
informed the suspect priests that they were under police investigation
and that he would be stalling his inquiry until the police probe was
over.
Mr O'Callaghan's conduct in such cases had the effect of tipping the priests off about the covert police interest.
Lawyer Paul Holdway, who was recently honoured by the Law
Institute of Victoria for his work with victims of church sexual abuse,
said he was disappointed by the failure of the church to announce what
it had done to improve its abuse inquiry process.
''We would have hoped that the church would have
responded to the issues by making a public statement and doing a review
of the process, which has not been reviewed since 1996, when it was
launched,'' he said.
''The system is still impacted by confusion from a
victim's point of view on who O'Callaghan is acting for. Another is the
appropriateness of the skills of the church staff working with
victims.''
Mr Holdway met police examining problems with the church's inquiry process early this year.
Victim advocate Helen Last said some victims had also lost faith in the Melbourne Response.
''Victims want police to have the first go at knowing
what the assaults are about and arresting and questioning the alleged
perpetrator and conducting their investigation without any contamination
by Mr O'Callaghan,'' she said.
SIC: TA/AUS