HONG KONG (AP) - Police said Thursday that the Roman Catholic Church appears to have been shielding alleged pedophile priests in Hong Kong rather than taking action to protect victims.
Police Superintendent Shirley Chu, who is investigating eight alleged abuse cases, has complained that the church is refusing to hand over written confessions apparently made by some priests during internal church probes.
"It seems that the church has been protecting its reputation and priests rather than the victims," Chu said. Chu spoke to local reporters on Wednesday, and her comments were confirmed by police spokesman Mackenzie Mak.
The church has been mired in a scandal involving alleged sexual abuse of children by as many as six priests who have worked in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong church officials say some cases were confirmed in internal investigations and that they now have adopted a "zero tolerance" policy toward child sex abuse that includes helping the police.
But a spokesman, the Rev. Lawrence Lee, has been quoted by local media as saying confessions by priests would not be handed over because that would violate the trust the priests placed in their superiors when they confessed.
The investigators are asking Hong Kong Justice Secretary Elsie Leung whether they might have grounds for seeking a court order demanding that the church produce the confessions, police spokeswoman S.Y. Ho said Thursday.
Lee did not immediately respond to a reporter's inquiry about the latest police allegations.
The two most recent complaints were received after a police hotline was set up last week. Callers told police about alleged offenses that took place during the 1960s and 1970s, Ho said.
Ho said all but one of the eight alleged victims were boys, and none of the cases involved allegations of rape.
The investigations have only led to one arrest so far. Former priest Michael Lau was taken into custody on May 4 and released on bail the next day. No charge has yet been filed.
Lau left the priesthood after the church found in an internal hearing that he had sexually molested a 15-year-old boy twice in 1994.
Police have said two of the other priests have moved elsewhere, one to Australia and one to Canada.