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	Priest Told of Abuse: Woman By Joanne Mccarthy The Herald June 2, 2010 http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/priest-told-of-abuse-woman/1846652.aspx FORMER Maitland-Newcastle priest Philip Wilson is under renewed pressure to stand down amid fresh allegations of his role in the cover-up of sexual abuse by notorious pedophile priest Denis McAlinden. The Herald can today reveal that Wilson, now the Archbishop of Adelaide, received a sworn statement from a woman in 1995 alleging that McAlinden had sexually assaulted her and her two daughters. The statement was forwarded to police yesterday and comes a month after The Herald revealed similar allegations by another alleged McAlinden victim. The woman said she felt "abused by McAlinden and the church" following claims that her statement to the then Father Wilson, and that of her sister who was another McAlinden victim, were used by the church in an attempted secret defrocking of the priest in October 1995. She is further angered that the allegations were not reported to police. McAlinden's attempted defrocking was launched within 24 hours of police charging another Maitland-Newcastle diocese pedophile priest, Vince Ryan. "I can remember it as if it was today - Philip Wilson telling me, 'We've been after this man [McAlinden] for a long time'," the woman said. "That's what we thought after they contacted us - that we were helping to get the evidence to get this man jailed. "It never happened, did it?" McAlinden died in Western Australia in 2005, aged 82, 10 years after refusing to be defrocked and six weeks after the diocese formally notified police of child sex allegations against him. The woman's sworn statement to the then Father Wilson, with a covering document carrying a "Tribunal of the Catholic Church" letterhead, was forwarded to police by the Herald, at the woman's request. Archbishop Wilson was director of the tribunal in 1995. In her statement, the woman described incidents involving herself, her daughters and McAlinden. "I just want to see an end to this," she said in her statement. The woman and her sister did not speak about McAlinden's offending until 1992, after publicity about a court case in Western Australia in which he was acquitted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. The woman and her sister have offered to speak with police who are considering investigations to see whether any action should be taken regarding the church's failure to alert authorities about McAlinden allegations. Newcastle crime manager Chief Inspector Brad Taylor said the matter was still being considered but refused to comment further. A spokeswoman for Archbishop Wilson said he was away and unable to respond to specific questions.
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