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THE SA police Pedophile Task Force will more than double in size following a 4 million funding boost. Police Minister Kevin Foley said last night the injection - approved by State Cabinet yesterday - will increase the taskforce from 13 to 27 members. It will also allow police to launch new investigations into several organisations providing services to children. The Pedophile Task Force was formed in May, 2003, to deal with allegations of child abuse within the Anglican Church. "It was initially funded under existing SAPOL resources, but the job has become much bigger than we could have predicted," Mr Foley said. "Its terms of reference have broadened and the current 13-strong taskforce has already done an outstanding job of investigating more than 300 allegations of sexual abuse dating back to the 1940s, resulting in 17 people being arrested or reported." The funding boost -requested by Police Commissioner Mat Hyde - Will allow an extra four sworn police officers and 10 civilians - analytical, research and support staff - to be recruited. Mr Hyde said he expected the taskforce's inquiries would continue for another two years. "I didn't expect it to go on for so long. so we are planning accordingly," he said. "The bottom line was we shifted resources into the Pedophile Task Force when we set it up about 12 months ago, expecting that it had a life and we were working towards that time frame of 12 months. "I think they have been very successful over that period of time, however, what we have is now a somewhat different situation than what we envisaged some time ago." This included a large number of complicated historical inquiries, victims coming forward because of publicity surrounding ongoing arrests and the prospect of more investigations stemming from the upcoming inquiry into wards of the state. Pedophile Task Force chief Detective Superintendent Grant Stevens said the 10 non-police personnel would assist investigators. "It frees up detectives so they can focus on the parts of the investigation that require their skills," he said. "With the particular issues involved in historical sexual crime investigation there are opportunities to use people with different skills that don't have to be police officers to progress the investigations." Supt Stevens said the extra resources would see "up to three" new investigations and inquiries connected with the state wards inquiry without affecting existing cases. Adelaide Advertiser (14-9-2004) Nigel Hunt |
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ALLEGATIONS Of sexual abuse which occurred before 1982 involving up to 600 people are being examined. Premier Mike Rann said yesterday the police investigations had so far resulted in 18 people being charged with offences. The Government lifted the statute of limitations on pre-1982 sex offences in June, 2003, as part of Mr Rann's law and order reforms. The SA police Pedophile Taskforce has doubled from 13 to 27 members with a 54 million funding boost from the Government. Adelaide Advertiser (15-9-2004) |
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