BishopAccountability.org

Police Action Not What Victims Wanted: Bishop

By Dan Cox
ABC News
July 11, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-11/police-action-not-what-victims-wanted3a-bishop/4813082?section=nsw

Former Bishop Michael Malone is back in the witness box today

The former Bishop of the Hunter Valley's Catholic Church has told a New South Wales inquiry he did not take child sexual abuse allegations to police because it was not what the victims wanted.

Former Bishop Michael Malone is the first Church witness to come under examination at the inquiry.

He was the head of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese from 1995 to 2011.

Senior policeman Peter Fox sparked the Special Commission with claims the Church protected two paedophile priests, Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

Bishop Malone will be back in the witness box this morning.

During the public hearings late yesterday he was asked by Counsel Assisting the Commission why he did not take abuse allegations against McAlinden to police.

He said he understood that the two victims "didn't want to go to police", adding they were now adults and it was "their call, not mine".

He also said it is "well-known" most diocese have "secret files on priests".

He said he did not open McAlinden's confidential personnel file because "he had enough to act on".

The inquiry yesterday heard Michael Malone "inherited" a brief case which contained "secret files" on the region's priests.

He told the inquiry one of his first duties as the new bishop was to stand McAlinden down because of the nature of the allegations.




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