AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
May 7, 2015
Gabriel Wingate-Pearse
Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has pleaded not guilty to concealing child sex abuse in the Catholic church via his lawyer in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday.
Archbishop Wilson, who did not appear, was represented by barrister Simon Buchen, who said his client was pleading not guilty and he was anticipating a lengthy hearing.
He flagged with Magistrate Robert Stone there may be an application to “change the venue”.
One issue was the possible length of any hearing but Mr Buchen alluded to other issues which he did not specify.
“That’s not the only reason,” he said.
Mr Stone said he could make an application but if a magistrate could be made available at Newcastle, if that was where most witnesses were located, it may not be granted.
The prosecution asked for six weeks to prepare the brief of evidence to be served by June 3, reply on June 17, when Archbishop Wilson, who is not on bail, would again be excused from attending.
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.