NSW: Star Chamber powers for Northern Territory investigators

AAP General News (Australia)
02-21-2008
NSW: Star Chamber powers for Northern Territory investigators

SYDNEY, Feb 21 AAP - A culture of silence in the outback hampering federal investigations
into child sexual abuse and violence in Aboriginal communities, has prompted the implementation
of Star Chamber powers to imprison uncooperative witnesses.

Members of an Alice Springs-based task force making the investigations and so far operating
for 18 months, has asked Australia's eight police commissioners for the special powers.

Granting the status of a special intelligence operation puts violence and child sexual
abuse in Aboriginal …