Innocence ignored

In a special edition of 60 MINUTES, Tara Brown reports on one of the worst miscarriages of justice imaginable: a high-profile criminal investigation where not only were the failings of the police case inexplicable, they caused catastrophic consequences for six innocent, law-abiding Australians. Members of the extended Cook family, from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, ran a much-loved circus school but ended up in prison after being charged with 127 counts of monstrous child sexual abuse. At the time of the arrests, detectives were quick to publicise their success in identifying and stopping a depraved sex ring. The only problem: there wasn’t a shred of credible evidence to back up the accusations. Now, having destroyed the lives of blameless people, it might be expected that the New South Wales police would be big enough to apologise for their incompetence. But they’re not.