Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson charged with concealing sex abuse

By Dan Box
Australian
March 17, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/adelaide-archbishop-philip-wilson-charged-with-concealing-sex-abuse/story-e6frg6nf-1227266023201

THE Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has immediately taken indefinite leave to fight charges that he concealed child sex abuse allegedly committed by another priest during the 1970s.

As revealed exclusively by The Australian today, NSW Police issued Archbishop Wilson, the vice-president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, with a future court attendance notice to face a single charge of concealing a serious indictable offence.

He is understood to be the most senior Catholic official worldwide to face court over a criminal allegation of this type and could face up to two years in prison if convicted.

In a statement this afternoon, Archbishop Wilson says he’s disappointed that NSW police have decided to charge him. “The suggestion appears to be that I failed to bring to the attention of police a conversation I am alleged to have had in 1976, when I was a junior priest, that a now deceased priest had abused a child,” he said.