AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
BY SAM MCKEITH AND MEGAN NEIL AAP MARCH 17, 2015
THE Catholic archbishop of Adelaide will fight an allegation he concealed child sexual abuse by a priest, a charge a victims’ group says is unlikely to be the last faced by a senior church official.
PHILIP Wilson is believed to be the most senior Catholic official in the world to face charges of this nature.
NSW police allege Wilson concealed a serious offence regarding child sexual abuse in the state’s Hunter region.
The abuse was allegedly committed during the 1970s by another priest, when both men worked in the Maitland Diocese, near Newcastle.
Wilson said he was disappointed police had decided to charge him and would vigorously defend his innocence. …
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) spokesman Mark Fabbro said it was positive to see the police move against such a senior church official.
“Survivors had been wondering why it had taken so long for a senior prelate to be brought to justice,” Mr Fabbro told AAP.
“There is evidence also implicating other individuals who have obviously from the evidence not reported crimes to the police and not pursued the perpetrators to ensure that they were accountable to the Australian public.
“It appears from the evidence that we’ve gained that the senior prelates in the Catholic Church persisted in the movement of … criminals away from police authorities.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.