AUSTRALIA
ABC News
May 22, 2018
The verdict in the case of Archbishop Philip Wilson — the most senior Catholic to be charged with concealing child abuse — is already being declared a “landmark” case, with one legal expert predicting it could trigger a flood of other prosecutions.
Wilson — who became the Archbishop of Adelaide in 2001 — was found guilty of covering up abuse by priest Jim Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region in the 1970s.
Magistrate Robert Stone told the court he did not accept Wilson could not recall a 1976 conversation with the victim.
Prominent defence lawyer and co-chair of the South Australian Law Society’s criminal law committee Craig Caldicott said today’s verdict was important because of the precedent it set.
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