By Stephen Crittenden and Suzanne Smith
ABC News
June 18, 2010
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/18/2931317.htm?section=justin
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| Bishop Malone says Archbishop Wilson [pictured] should clarify what he knew about McAlinden before 1995. Photo by Alan Porritt |
The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, says Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson needs to clarify what he knew about paedophile priest Denis McAlinden.
The diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, north of Sydney, has been the subject of a major police investigation called Strike Force Georgiana.
In recent weeks, a former Catholic school principal and two victims of abuse at the hands of the late McAlinden have gone to the police alleging that Archbishop Wilson and his superiors were part of a "conspiracy of silence" or an alleged "cover-up" in relation to McAlinden's crimes.
McAlinden arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1949 and settled in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese.
Parishioners began expressing concerns about McAlinden's behaviour soon after his arrival.
Over the next four decades, McAlinden sexually assaulted young girls under the age of 12 as he was moved from parish to parish.
"It has transpired over the years, as other people came forward, that [McAlinden] was quite a predator, and he should have been dealt with earlier," Bishop Malone said.
'Defrocking' process
Two sisters, both victims of McAlinden, gave statements to the then-Father Philip Wilson in 1995. They were both adults at the time.
One sister, who wants to remain anonymous, has told ABC News Online that Father Wilson "gave her the impression" that her statement would be used in a police investigation.
The reports were not sent to the police, but they were used as part of a secret "defrocking" process.
The sister, who wants to remain anonymous, says she thought McAlinden would be brought to justice.
"I just presumed it would be jail because other clergy have been jailed for offences against children and he seemed to be able to skip around the countryside and never ever got caught and never even had the police investigating him," she said.
"I don't understand how he got away with it for so long if Philip Wilson, as he said to me, had been after this man for a lot of years."
But Bishop Malone says he was advised the two sisters did not want the church to go to the police.
"If she had an expectation that the police were going to be told - and they weren't - that would be a grave error," he said.
"But my information [was] that they didn't want the police to be told and as adults that is their call."
In his statement to the ABC, Archbishop Wilson says he had no involvement in this "defrocking" process apart from taking the statements from the two sisters, and that McAlinden's criminal behaviour "was only confirmed" for him when he took these two statements in October 1995.
However Bishop Malone has told the ABC that McAlinden's behaviour was known about years before.
"There was sufficient smoke around to cause McAlinden to be a suspect in these sorts of cases," he said.
"For [McAlinden] to be stripped of his faculties in 1993 meant there would have had to be something around about that time or not long before it, I mean, it is not something you would do easily to stand a priest aside and strip him of his faculties."
Bishop Malone says Archbishop Wilson should clarify what he knew about McAlinden before 1995.
"I think certainly there was enough known about his predilections, but whether sufficient was known to act on them is a point that needs to be clarified by Philip Wilson seriously," he said.
Bishop Malone, however, denies there has been any cover-up over McAlinden, and says Archbishop Wilson acted in accordance with instructions from his superiors.
Another complaint against Wilson
Last month on ABC1's Lateline, Peter Gogarty - a victim of another Hunter Valley priest Jim Fletcher - claimed that Archbishop Wilson lived in the Old Bishop's House in Maitland when Fletcher sexually abused him there in the mid-to-late 1970s.
Mr Gogarty claims the abuse began when he was 12 years old, and that when he was about 15 it moved to the Old Bishop's House in Maitland where Fletcher had an upstairs bedroom.
Mr Gogarty says this would have been about 1975, when Fletcher was master of ceremonies at Maitland cathedral.
At the time, Mr Gogarty was a student at the Catholic high school next door to the Old Bishop's House in Maitland.
Mr Gogarty claims he would sometimes pass Archbishop Wilson in the downstairs common room of the Old Bishop's House in Maitland.
Mr Gogarty also claims that Archbishop Wilson would see Fletcher taking him up to his bedroom where the abuse occurred.
"Jim started sneaking me in the backdoor in the kitchen, in the back of the house, straight past the common room where I would pass Philip Wilson and then up the stairs to his bedroom," he said.
Archbishop Wilson has told the ABC he knew nothing of the abuse that was taking place and never saw Fletcher taking Mr Gogarty upstairs.
He says he only moved "full-time" to the house in 1982.
"I had no knowledge of any of this. The only time I saw Father Fletcher with Peter Gogarty was downstairs in the public rooms of the house," Archbishop Wilson said.
The Archbishop also told the ABC's Stateline in Adelaide that he only remembers seeing Mr Gogarty as a "senior teenager".
The Archbishop also told The Australian newspaper that he stayed overnight at the Old Bishop's House prior to 1982.
By 1982, Mr Gogarty would have been 21 or 22 years old.
Mr Gogarty said the sexual abuse ceased when he was about 18. However, Mr Gogarty said he stands by his story.
When asked whether he thinks Mr Gogarty is telling the truth, Bishop Malone responded that Mr Gogarty is "a fine fellow".
"He is a good man. And he and I speak often. And I have a high regard for him," Bishop Malone said.
The office of Archbishop Wilson was contacted by ABC News Online for a response.
At publication, there has been no response to the questions put to Archbishop Wilson arising from this story.
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