Vatican defended an accused priest

By Dan Box
Australian
June 05, 2014

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/vatican-defended-an-accused-priest/story-fngburq5-1226943483210#

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN JUNE 05, 2014

THE Vatican’s influence on local cases of alleged child sex abuse will be scrutinised later this month when the Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, gives evidence about his handling of allegations against a former priest.

In a public hearing in Sydney, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will investigate the relationship between the Vatican and Archbishop Wilson, during his previous role as the Bishop of Wollongong, south of Sydney.

Shortly after his appointment to the diocese, in 1997, local priest John Gerard Nestor was convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy several years earlier.

Mr Nestor denied the charge and subsequently won an appeal to have the court’s decision overturned later the same year.

During the initial court case, Tony Abbott gave character evidence in support of Mr Nestor, with whom he had studied at Sydney’s St Patrick’s Seminary during the 1980s.