Police to Allege Senior Catholic Priests Concealed Sexual Assaults

By Joanne McCarthy
Canberra Times
July 30, 2012

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/police-to-allege-senior-catholic-priests-concealed-sexual-assaults-20120730-23ain.html

NSW Police will give prosecutors evidence that three of the most senior members of the Catholic Church allegedly concealed the sexual assault of young girls in the Hunter Valley, in a landmark case that could expose the church to a new wave of criminal prosecution.

One of three people of interest in Strike Force Lantle is the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Father Brian Lucas, who is alleged to have been aware of the actions of the paedophile priest Denis McAlinden as far back as 1993 but failed to report him to police. The others are Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, who wrote to police yesterday to formally decline to be interviewed, and the retired Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Michael Malone. From 1993 to 1995 the three had roles in internal moves against the priest, including an attempted ''speedy'', secret defrocking in October 1995 because of the evidence against him.

The church failed to report the matter to authorities until 2003, after victims notified the police and were paid compensation.

Instead, in 1995, McAlinden was assured by the then Maitland-Newcastle bishop, Leo Clarke: ''Your good name will be protected by the confidential nature of this process'', despite ''your admission to Father Brian Lucas and other evidence''.

He urged the priest to agree to a ''speedy'' defrocking ''for the sake of souls and the good of the church'', as police were about to charge another priest, Vince Ryan, with sexually assaulting young boys over two decades.

In a follow-up letter weeks later, the new Maitland-Newcastle bishop Malone told McAlinden the ecclesiastical censure would proceed ''because of the gravity of the allegations against you [and] the evidence supporting those allegations''.

Bishop Malone and Father Lucas would not comment yesterday. A spokeswoman for Archbishop Wilson said it was ''not appropriate to comment and matters relating to any police inquiry should be referred to the police.''

McAlinden died in a church-run, aged-care facility in Western Australia in 2005 without facing charges.

In 2007 the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle was forced to confirm McAlinden was a serial child sex offender. Fairfax has confirmed that a brief of evidence and an investigator's report of the church's handling of the case will be given to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in the next few weeks.

If the priests are prosecuted, Fairfax believes it would be the first time a church official has been charged with section 316 of the NSW Crimes Act, which makes it an offence to conceal a serious crime.