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A few years ago Victoria's then deputy commissioner Graham Ashton said, "The processes of the Catholic Church are designed to put the reputation of the church first and the victims second".

But the terrible truth is that for decades police were part of the problem, with key officers actively working for the church and against fellow officers investigating pedo priests.

They were known as the Catholic mafia – men who covered up crimes, tipped off the church and allowed sex offenders to continue molesting children – all in the name of protecting their religious institution.

Some were local sub officers that stood over younger police. One became a commander and had state-wide influence and yet another was a key member of the CIB and monitored major investigations.

Some issues were relatively minor. A recently retired officer remembers, "During the early 1970s Catholic priests were bullet-proof. I recall even in the early 1980s one of my constables booked a priest for speeding and was forced to withdraw the ticket after being lectured about the correct procedures by the (extremely Catholic) senior sergeant."

Others were nothing short of conspiracies to pervert the course of justice where police protected sexual predators and allowed them to continue to rape children.

There were at least six of them – primary-school kids from Coburg, who separately presented at doctors with injuries consistent with sexual molestation.

All told police a similar story of being assaulted by the local priest, identified the make and model of his car and individually took detectives to a room off the presbytery where the offences allegedly occurred.

In that room police found items that corroborated the victims' stories.

When he was arrested the priest rang a bishop and by the time the detectives had taken him to the watchhouse a senior policeman was waiting.

He told the investigators he required a brief of evidence before the priest could be charged. They countered that they had enough to lock him up immediately. The senior man ordered they release him and complete the brief for review. When they did it was not authorised and the priest was never charged.

The most scandalous case of police cover-up is that of Mildura serial child raper Monsignor John Day.

A dogged detective by the name of Denis Ryan (a devout Catholic) pursued the priest, eventually taking statements from 12 child victims.

His reward was to be kicked off the case and eventually forced to resign. Ryan says in his book, Unholy Trinity, he believes Day sexually assaulted more than 100 children.

In 1996 as head of the Child Exploitation Squad, Senior Sergeant Chris O'Connor​ oversaw another investigation into Michael Charles Glennon– involving 17 victims.

Then a senior lawyer (a Catholic) in the Office of Public Prosecutions intervened, questioning why the charges were laid. Senior police accused O'Connor of running a vendetta against the priest and the charges were withdrawn.

When a senior officer was told Glennon was likely to re-offend if freed, he said that was irrelevant.

In 1999, police investigating a criminal damage case in a Catholic Church found the offender was a man "paying back" the priest who molested him.

When the priest was arrested on the day before Good Friday, he made one phone call – to Archbishop George Pell.

"By the time we got the priest back to the station, a QC had already rung to say he was representing him and told him to make no comment," said one of the investigators.

After the arrest was logged in the police computer, the arresting officer received three anonymous calls from colleagues describing her as "a disgrace".