Bishop Didn't Know about Paedophile Evidence

By Suzanne Smith
ABC - Lateline
July 10, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3800467.htm

Retired Catholic Bishop, Michael Malone, who headed the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese from 1995 to 2011 has told the Newcastle Inquiry into sexual abuse in the church that he was not aware of all the documentary evidence in his files about a paedophile priest until three weeks ago.

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: A retired Catholic bishop has told the NSW inquiry into child sexual abuse that despite being bishop of his diocese for 16 years he'd not acquainted himself with a substantial amount of documentary evidence about a known paedophile priest held in his own files until the documents were released three weeks ago.

The internal Church letters and documents on father Denis McAlinden were released last week, showing the Church had information about his paedophile behaviour as far back as 1953.

Bishop Michael Malone, who headed the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese from 1995 until 2011, said he'd been the bishop of a busy diocese and hadn't had the luxury to go trawling through personnel files.

Suzie Smith reports from Newcastle. The producer is Stephen Crittenden.

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTER: Michael Malone was nominated to succeed the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Leo Clarke in November, 1994.

He told the inquiry the appointment was a “complete shock” and that he was still, “scratching his head about why he was appointed.”

A year later, Bishop Clarke suddenly resigned.

Bishop Malone said he was only given a day or two’s notice of the resignation and there appeared to be nothing wrong with Bishop Leo Clarke's health.

He said the handover took five minutes and then, “Bishop Clarke was out of there like a rocket.”

Bishop Malone says during that meeting, Bishop Clarke slid a large pectoral cross across the desk and said, "This is yours," but he wouldn’t answer any of his questions.

MICHAEL MALONE, RETIRED BISHOP (male voiceover): "I said, 'Aren’t you going to show me where the skeletons are, where the secret things are?'"

LEO CLARKE, BISHOP (male voiceover): "Oh, you will find out about that.”

SUZIE SMITH: Bishop Malone said Leo Clarke then pointed to a rather large briefcase sitting in the corner of his office. He assumed some of the secret files were in the briefcase.

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "I think it is common knowledge around the traps that in any diocese you would have some confidential files on priests."

SUZIE SMITH: Bishop Malone says when he first arrived in Maitland-Newcastle in late 1994, he knew nothing about any allegations of paedophile activity in the diocese.

A year later, Bishop Malone's first duty was to continue a secret defrocking process started by his predecessor a few weeks earlier. This was following allegations by two key witnesses, known as AL and AK, who were also victims. Michael Malone told the inquiry he didn't go to the police at this time because he was told those victims did not want to press criminal charges.

But in 2010 one of those victims appeared on Lateline and said Church officials had told her the police would be brought in.

VICTIM (June 18, 2010, Lateline): I just presumed there would be jail because other clergy had been jailed for offences against children and he just seemed to skip around the countryside and never got caught, never got the police investigating him. I don't understand how he got away with it for so long.

SUZIE SMITH: Asked whether he considered he had any responsibility to report McAlinden to the police himself, Bishop Malone replied that hadn’t crossed his mind at the time.

Bishop Malone says even though he was engaged in a process of formerly defrocking Denis McAlinden, he never accessed or read the extensive files on McAlinden held in the Church archives which contain evidence from many victims going back over four decades.

Last week the inquiry released many of those documents which had been obtained under subpoena, but Bishop Malone told the inquiry he only became aware of the details of those files three weeks ago.

JULIA LONERGAN, SENIOR COUNSEL ASSISTING THE COMMISSION (female voiceover): "Are you able to assist the Commission as to why it is that you have never seen those documents given they, it seems, lived on a file that was present in the diocese of which you were Bishop for 16 years.”

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "I don’t know where your investigation team found these letters. Presumably they would have accessed the archives of the Diocese and that is a luxury I didn’t have.”

JULIA LONERGAN (female voiceover): "It does seem strange, and some would suggest defies belief, you wouldn’t acquaint yourself with his history given the matters that AL and AK have alleged; would you agree with that?"

MICHAEL MALONE (male voiceover): "In hindsight, yes, but at the time I thought there was enough to go on.”

SUZIE SMITH: The Catholic Church’s professional standards’ committee eventually did pass on information about McAlinden to the police in 1999. However it was revealed earlier today that this did not filter down to a police officer trying to find Denis McAlinden in 2002.

Detective senior constable Jacqueline Flipo also failed to follow up information given to her by Bishop Malone’s secretary Elizabeth Doyle about the Church’s knowledge of his last-known whereabouts.

Denis McAlinden died in 2005 and was never brought to justice.