AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By IAN KIRKWOOD July 26, 2013
THE mother of victim AH said it would have been unbearable if paedophile priest Jim Fletcher had not been convicted on her son’s evidence.
The woman, BJ, who gave evidence to the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle on Friday, finished her evidence after lunch by explaining to the commissioner, Margaret Cunneen, the toll that Fletcher’s crimes had taken on her son and her family.
Ms Cunneen said BJ had described the conviction as a “good result” and she asked what BJ would have felt had the trial resulted gone the other way.
BJ said her son had shown enormous courage to press charges and to continue with the trial despite the publicity and stress it put on him.
“The legal process didn’t let us down, the Catholic Church did,’’ BJ said.
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