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	Archbishop under Fire over Alleged Abuse Cover-up By Stephen Crittenden and Suzanne Smith ABC News May 17, 2010 http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s2902098.htm Transcript LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is under increasing pressure tonight to explain what he knew about sexual abuses by priests. Police are investigating complaints from victims who allege that when Archbishop Wilson held senior positions in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in the 1970s and '80s, he failed to report sexual abuse by priests against children. Archbishop Wilson is widely tipped as the next Archbishop of Sydney if Cardinal George Pell takes up a Vatican post. The Archbishop is also chairman of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference. Tonight, a special investigation by Lateline, ABC News Online and Radio National includes the personal accounts of two people, one of them a victim, who claim Archbishop Philip Wilson should have known about the abuses. Suzanne Smith and Stephen Crittenden prepared this report. SUZANNE SMITH, REPORTER: This old bishop's house in Maitland was home to Bishop Leo Clarke from 1976 to 1995. For part of this time, paedophile priest Father Jim Fletcher also lived here. He sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy on many occasions in his upstairs bedroom. Also living in the house at this time was the young priest, Father Philip Wilson, who would later become Archbishop of Adelaide. That 12-year-old boy was Peter Gogarty. PETER GOGARTY, CLERGY ABUSE VICTIM: The first event probably felt strange. There was this incredible sort of inner-turmoil about what's happening? What do I do? And, and, I remember more than once going home and sitting in the toilet and crying and going back to Jim and saying, "I feel really bad about this." And Jim saying, "Well, if you want to, you can go to the confessional and then you'll be absolved of all of that." SUZANNE SMITH: And was he giving the confession, obviously. PETER GOGARTY: Yeah. Or, "You could go to somebody else, but don't mention my name," you know, that sort of thing. And I remember doing that. And the best term I could come up with, I suppose, is to say that I felt incredibly grubby, and a grubbiness that stayed with me for a long, long time. SUZANNE SMITH: Conveniently for Jim Fletcher, Peter Gogarty went to school right next door to the bishop's house. At first Jim Fletcher brought him through the front door in his school uniform until Bishop Leo Clarke grew suspicious and banned Peter Gogarty from the house. From then on, Jim Fletcher sneaked Peter Gogarty in through the backdoor. So, Peter, this is where you allege the abuse took place. PETER GOGARTY: Yes, that's right Suzie, this, in the 1970s was the Bishop's house when Leo Clarke was Bishop. Leo's rooms are all across the front here. Jim's room was on the same floor but at the very back corner. And up until the bishop banned me from being in the house, I used to waltz straight up to that door and make myself at home. And Leo was often up on that veranda and would see me coming in. SUZANNE SMITH: So, Peter, you've shown us the front, where you allege this is where the abuse took place. Now when the ban was put in place against Fletcher bringing you into the Bishop's house, he used to secretly take you round the back. Do you wanna show us where that - how that used to happened? PETER GOGARTY: Yeah, sure, Suzy. Well, after Leo stopped me coming in the front door, Jim would bring me straight out of the carpark, down this little laneway here alongside us and then down the back there there's some shrubs with a path that runs straight across to the back kitchen door, so, he would then take me in there and Leo wouldn't know I was in the house, but the other priests that were there, including Archbishop Wilson, did know I was there. SUZANNE SMITH: Did you see Philip Wilson on more than one occasion in that bishop's house? PETER GOGARTY: Absolutely. Regularly saw Philip Wilson in that house. SUZANNE SMITH: And you were in the company of Father Jim Fletcher? PETER GOGARTY: Jim Fletcher. Always. SUZANNE SMITH: On those occasions did Father Jim Fletcher take you upstairs and sexually abuse you? PETER GOGARTY: In his bedroom. SUZANNE SMITH: And were you the only boy with him at the time? PETER GOGARTY: Yes. Yes. SUZANNE SMITH: Would you say it's more than two or three occasions? PETER GOGARTY: Oh, definitely more than two or three occasions. ... Quite often, I would be there alone with Jim; never without Jim, always with Jim and regularly saw Philip Wilson in that house. Because I came in through the backdoor via the kitchen. So, Philip would - you know, he lived in the house. He'd be around the house. SUZANNE SMITH: So can you remember was it in the loungeroom that you saw him, that you passed him, did you say hello to him? PETER GOGARTY: Yeah. Yeah, I regularly said hello to him. It was a common room. SUZANNE SMITH: Was it the loungeroom? PETER GOGARTY: Yeah. There was a common room that was effectively a loungeroom for the priests. There was a TV in there and, you know, they'd sit there and read the papers or a magazine, watch the telly, and the only way to get to the stairs to go up to Jim's bedroom was past that common room. SUZANNE SMITH: Did he ever raise the issue of you going up to the priests' bedroom? PETER GOGARTY: No. SUZANNE SMITH: So after the abuse happened and you came down the stairs through the common room was Philip Wilson in the common room at any time? Did he see you afterwards? PETER GOGARTY: Yeah. Yeah, I would say definitely yes. I mean, again, he lived in that house. He was around that house. If I went up those stairs, there was a chance that he would see me. I mean, he wasn't always there because, you know, priests are out and about, but he would equally see me coming back down the stairs. Now why would any grown man, why would any adult think that it was appropriate for another adult male - forget about whether or not he's a priest. As a parent, if I saw an adult male taking a young boy into - you know, obviously going to his bedroom - I mean, there was nowhere else for us to go up there. What was he doing? What would any reasonable adult think of that sort of behaviour? SUZANNE SMITH: This afternoon, Archbishop Philip Wilson responded to some questions put to him by Lateline. Archbishop Wilson says he was unaware that Jim Fletcher was sexually abusing Peter Gogarty. He says he never saw Jim Fletcher take Peter Gogarty upstairs to his bedroom and the only time he saw Father Fletcher with Peter Gogarty was downstairs in the public rooms of the Bishop's house. In recent years, Peter Gogarty, a small businessman and former Cessnock councillor, has phoned Archbishop Wilson to ask him why he hadn't intervened. PETER GOGARTY: So, I asked now-Archbishop Wilson what he thought was happening at the time. I mean, did he know that Bishop Clarke had banned me from the house? And his response to that was that, no, he didn't know anything about that and that as far as he was concerned, Jim was just a good bloke. He didn't know that Jim was up to anything untoward. SUZANNE SMITH: Father Jim Fletcher was one of at least five priests who abused more than 100 children in the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese from the 1960s until the late 1990s. He was convicted in 2004 over 24 offences involving four victims. Here are the other priests that have been convicted since 1997: Father Vincent Ryan: convicted: 1997, 50 offences, 26 victims. Father John Houston: convicted: 2009, for filming children in the shower. Father John Denham: convicted in 2009, 135 offences, 39 victims. Denham is about to be sentenced. Meanwhile, Father Denis McAlinden was charged in WA in 1992, but not convicted. He was investigated over the sexual assault of five girls under the age of 10. At the same time Peter Gogarty was being abused at the Bishop's house, the aggressive paedophile John Denham was abusing boys in another part of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese. Here at St Pius X High School in Adamstown where Denham was a teacher. Stephen Kilkeary was a student at St Pius from 1975 until 1979. He says it was a violent place where sexual assault was common. STEPHEN KILKEARY, FMR STUDENT, PIUS X HIGH SCHOOL: Oh, it was rampant basically. John Denham was basically very overt in his sexualized behaviours towards a whole lotta boys. And, again, you know, thinking back over the years, you know, he basically would target boys, including me, would groom them, would go out of his way to sort of get into their lives, go to their parents' homes, take them on trips to Sydney, introduce them to alcohol. Very sort of full on paedophile-type behaviours. SUZANNE SMITH: Father John Denham failed to seduce Stephen Kilkeary, but many other boys weren't so lucky. In 1978, Philip Wilson had been made Director of Religious Education in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese and he was also teaching religion at St Pius X school. He and John Denham had also been in the seminary together. Stephen Kilkeary says the question for him remains was Philip Wilson aware of what was going on at the time? STEPHEN KILKEARY: I've given that a lot of thought over the years and my view would be that it would be impossible for anyone not to know about the sexual abuse that was going on at that school. It was - as I said, it was so rampant, so endemic, everybody talked about it, not just at the school, but even in the local community. It was widely known the boys were being sexually abused at that school. I've later discovered of course that many parents were actually complaining to the powers that be at St Pius X, particularly to the school principal Tom Brennan and nothing was being done. SUZANNE SMITH: This afternoon Archbishop Wilson denied that he had any knowledge of the sexual abuse that was going on while he was a teacher at St Pius High School. In 1980, Father John Denham was moved away from Pius 10th school following a complaint from a parent. He was transferred to two other parishes where he committed more offences. The complaints kept flowing in to the Bishop's office, whereby now Philip Wilson had become secretary to Bishop Leo Clarke. In 1987, Philip Wilson had risen to the office of Vicar General of Maitland-Newcastle, second-in-charge to the Bishop and responsible for administration and personnel issues in the diocese. In that year, Father John Denham was transferred out of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese to become Chaplain of Waverley College in Sydney. Here, he committed more crimes against children. Archbishop Philip Wilson is facing increasing pressure to say what he knew about the sexual abuse of children that went on in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in these years. There is also the case of another priest: Denis McAlinden. Two weeks ago, the former principal of St Joseph's Primary School at Merriwa accused Archbishop Wilson of being involved in a cover up of the sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl who was abused by Denis McAlinden. In a statement sent to the Newcastle Herald in 2007, Philip Wilson admits he was sent to the school and spoke to the girl's mother. (male voiceover): "I treated her account with the utmost seriousness and asked her to report her concerns to the police, but she decided not to do so or to make a formal statement to the church. ... I reported this outcome to the Bishop. ... The church has always urged people to report such complaints to the police as the highest priority, and it continues to do so." SUZANNE SMITH: Neither Philip Wilson nor Bishop Clarke reported the incident to the police. Now the former principal has told Lateline he feels terribly guilty about not reporting the incident to police. He says he was not encouraged to do so by Philip Wilson. (male voiceover): "I was never asked to make a statement, and it was never suggested to me if I wasn't happy I should go to the police. ... He said he would do something about it and he didn't. ... He said it would be a difficult process, but he would get McAlinden sent away to get help, but it didn't happen. Instead, McAlinden was transferred to the Newcastle parish of Adamstown where he came in contact with other children at St Columba’s." SUZANNE SMITH: Over the next 10 years, Denis McAlinden was accused of sexually abusing another five girls under the age of 10. In 1995, Philip Wilson took a statement from one of those girls. Late last month, she lodged an official complaint with police, alleging that Philip Wilson was involved in a "conspiracy of silence" over her abuse. It states: (female voiceover): "I have advice from a senior counsel that based on the documents which are now in the possession of the NSW Police, there are sufficient grounds to warrant an investigation by police." SUZANNE SMITH: Police are now investigating documents which demonstrate that just days after Philip Wilson took her statement, Bishop Leo Clarke launched a secret process to remove Denis McAlinden from the priesthood and promised to protect McAlinden's good name. (male voiceover): "A speedy resolution of this whole matter will be in your own good interests, as I have it on very good authority that some people are threatening to take this whole matter to the police ...". SUZANNE SMITH: Archbishop Wilson is not the first former Vicar General of Maitland-Newcastle Diocese to be accused of covering up sexual abuse. In 1996 police wanted to charge Monsineur Patrick Cotter with covering up the crimes of father Vincent Ryan, but the NSW DPP ruled that Cotter was too old to stand trial. He died in 2007. Last year, another Vicar General, Father Thomas Brennan, was convicted on two charges of making a written false statement to protect Father John Denham. Peter Gogarty has lodged an official complaint with the police about Archbishop Wilson. What if he says that he told Leo Clarke, the Bishop, and he thought the Bishop was telling police. PETER GOGARTY: Yeah. I still don't think that's enough. I don't think passing your responsibility to somebody else absolves you of your own responsibility. I think, again - you know, I just see that as an easy opt-out to say, "It's not my problem." I want Archbishop Wilson to tell me what he thinks about that little boy suffering at Jim Fletcher's hands. I mean, I look at these photos - that's me at nine; there's me round about when I started high school; there's me towards the end of high school - and I look into those eyes and it makes me sad. It's almost like grieving. I'm not sure who this boy was supposed to be. And I'm not unhappy with who I am, but who I am is not who this little boy was going to be. SUZANNE SMITH: Peter Gogarty wants Archbishop Wilson to meet him and give a public apology to the victims of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese. Suzanne Smith, Lateline. LEIGH SALES: Lateline offered Archbishop Wilson an on-camera interview, but he declined. We received answers to written questions this afternoon. A summary of two answers was included in that report. A full list of those questions and Archbishop Wilson's answers will be on the Lateline website shortly.
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