AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson could face two years jail over charges of concealing sex abuse
CATHOLIC Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson has been charged with concealing child sex abuse in the Hunter region in NSW.
Police will allege the archbishop, who was born in Cessnock, failed to report child sex abuse allegedly committed by paedophile priest Jim Fletcher when both men were working in the Maitland diocese near Newcastle in the 1970s, the Australian reports.
Fletcher died in 2006 after being jailed for raping a 13-year-old boy between 1989 and 1991.
Last year, a Special Commission of Inquiry found he “had an extensive history of perpetrating child sexual abuse in the diocese, exclusively abusing young males, particularly altar boys”.
Archbishop Wilson’s alleged offence carries a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.
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