AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By IAN KIRKWOOD July 18, 2013
A FORMER vicar-general of Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, Father William Burston, has blamed a lack of recall on having had 10 general anaesthetics in eight years.
In the first session of Thursday’s hearings at the special commission of inquiry, Father Burston said he ‘‘could not recall’’ – or words to that effect – more than 30 times.
The trend continued after the morning break, with dozens more questions being answered in similar fashion before the commission broke for lunch at 1pm.
Counsel assisting the inquiry David Kell put it to Father Burston that he had ‘‘no difficulty’’ remembering some things but could not appear to remember anything to do with ‘‘decisions or documents’’.
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