Catholic Church slams false claim by Victoria cops of 43 suicides

The Catholic Church has ­attacked Victoria Police’s exaggeration of suicide deaths due to clergy abuse.

Truth Justice and Healing Council chief executive Francis Sullivan in Sydney. Picture: Toby Zerna.

The Catholic Church has ­attacked Victoria Police’s exaggeration of suicide deaths due to clergy abuse, warning that false and misleading information amplifies the trauma caused by offending.

Truth Justice and Healing Council chief executive Francis Sullivan has, however, also warned the church against falling into the trap of believing that police are waging a vendetta.

Mr Sullivan said was he seriously concerned after The Weekend Australian revealed police had vastly overstated the number of people who had committed suicide as a result of clergy abuse.

Police originally claimed that up to 43 people may have killed themselves as a result of clergy-related sex abuse, but when the list was properly investigated just one confirmed case was found.

Despite this, the force has never publicly apologised for the mistake, nor has it openly ­acknowledged the damage the mistake caused the church or ­that it created a broader sense of ­betrayal among its followers.

Mr Sullivan has been charged with overseeing the church’s ­engagement with the royal commission into institutional abuse and believes the relationship between his organisation and the commission has been solid.

“What we saw last week, however, with the exposure in The Australian newspaper that the widely reported Victoria Police investigation into suicides connected to child sex abuse with the Catholic Church is, at best, factually wrong is a major concern,’’ he said. Mr Sullivan said the police claim of up to 43 suicides had been central to the condemnation of the church.

While he believed there were many cases where suicides may have followed Catholic abuse, it was essential the royal commission relied on facts. There was no conspiracy against the church, he added.

“The false claims by the Victorian police should in no way give succour to the leaders of church organisations that have been the focus of commission hearings,’’ he said.

“But when a report such as this … is found to be, at best, misleading, then it re­inforces in the minds of some that these investigations are designed simply as ‘get the Catholics’ exercises.

“This is not the case and it serves no one any good, lest of all the survivors of child sex abuse, for it to be given any support by discredited evidence and reports.

“The royal commission processes and all that surrounds it are traumatic enough for survivors without false and misleading claims dressed up as official ­reports inaccurately amplifying the horrors.’’

The Weekend Australian revealed police carried out a secret investigation to establish whether a list of 43 “suicide deaths’’ was accurate. The list was the catalyst for a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into abuse.

The police Crime Department investigation found there was only one verifiable suicide with clergy to blame, and more than 40 per cent of people on the suicide list could not be identified.

The row has enveloped the new Victoria Police Commissioner, Graham Ashton, who told the Victorian inquiry that the force was looking at the 43 deaths at the same time that the force had ruled out that number as wildly inflated. Mr Ashton has claimed he later discussed the suicide issue in private evidence ­before the inquiry.