AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By IAN KIRKWOOD July 3, 2013
A VICTIM of paedophile priest James Fletcher threw a bottle at the Nelson Bay presbytery in an angry outburst about ‘‘the things priests did to boys’’, the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle has heard.
Resuming his evidence under questioning from counsel assisting the commission, Julia Lonergan, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was taken through his recollection of the matter, which took place in 1998.
The bottle thrower was Fletcher victim AH.
Mr Fox said that a priest who was present when the bottle was thrown, Father Robert Searle, had initially confirmed that AH had yelled drunkenly about the things that priests did to boys.
In a phone conversation, Mr Fox said Father Searle had also said AH’s outburst was perhaps understandable ‘‘in the light of what we now know’’.
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