Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was never ordered by senior police not to investigate clergy abuse - only to stay out of those matters Strike Force Lantle was investigating, the Special Commission of Inquiry has been told.

Barrister for the Commissioner of Police, Wayne Roser SC, told the inquiry on Monday afternoon that Mr Fox was not made a strike force member but remained "at liberty" to investigate other allegations relating to other victims.

But instead he had leaked information that could adversely effect the strike force's work on paedophile priest Denis McAlinden and chose to advocate to "anyone who would listen to him" that Lantle was a "sham set up to fail".

Mr Roser told the inquiry that NSW Police had "total commitment" to investigate child sexual abuse allegations. 

Mr Fox would simply "personally attack" anyone who didn't agree with him, Mr Roser said.

The inquiry is continuing.

EARLIER REPORT

NSW police have branded Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox a liar and alleged he conspired with a Newcastle Herald journalist without backing up their claims, the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle has been told on Monday morning.

NSW police have branded Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox a liar and alleged he conspired with a Newcastle Herald journalist without backing up their claims, the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle has been told on Monday morning.

Police had absolved themselves of any fault in investigations of clergy child abuse and suggested Mr Fox was ‘‘the devil incarnate’’ and the NSW Police Northern Region was ‘‘as pure as the driven snow’’, Mr Fox’s barrister Mark Cohen told the commission.

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen SC has begun hearing closing submissions, as part of the inquiry into clergy abuse in the region and the conduct of police inquiries.

Written submissions have already been circulated among police, the church, Mr Fox and other parties involved in the hearings. 

Mr Cohen told the inquiry the written submissions put by the Commissioner of Police alleged Mr Fox and Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy were involved in a conspiracy and Mr Fox had leaked information.

But the conspiracy was not put directly to either Mr Fox or Ms McCarthy during their time in the witness box, and there wasn’t a ‘‘skerrick of evidence’’ before the inquiry to support the allegation.

Mr Cohen said the assertion from the Police Commissioner was ‘‘NSW Police didn’t do anything wrong, DCI Fox is the problem, aided and abetted by Ms McCarthy. . . We can all go home now’’.

He urged Ms Cunneen to reject police submissions as inconsistent with the evidence, labelling a chronology put forward by police as a ‘‘revisionist history of the events that have occurred’’.

The first phase of the inquiry focused on whether Mr Fox had been ordered by police to cease investigating clergy abuse allegations.

Mr Cohen said the answer was ‘‘a profound yes’’, with police having made it clear to Mr Fox ‘‘there would have been hell to pay’’.

The inquiry is continuing.