Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson applies for permanent stay on charge of concealing child sexual abuse

By Giselle Wakatama
ABC News
December 8, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-08/adelaide-archbishop-permanent-stay-conceal-child-sex-abuse/7009648

Archbishop Philip Wilson has pleaded not guilty to concealing child sexual abuse.

Adelaide's Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson paid off an abuse victim, demonstrating a tendency of trying to make abuse matters go away, Newcastle Local Court has heard.

The court has begun hearing a stay of proceedings application by Wilson, the most senior Catholic clergyman in the world charged with concealing child sexual abuse.

The court was told the child sexual abuse cover-up charge laid against Wilson was invalid as there was no evidence the offence he is accused of concealing ever happened.

Wilson has pleaded not guilty to concealing the serious indictable offence of the now-dead paedophile priest James Fletcher in the 1970s.

The crown asked to admit tendency evidence in a bid to show Wilson's alleged actions were not isolated.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison alleged Wilson was involved in paying a woman an amount of money so an allegation of indecent assault would go away.

Wilson's lawyer Ian Temby QC spent the day arguing for a stay of proceedings, saying his client would not get a fair trial.

Mr Temby said there was a lack of what he termed "proof of knowledge" in relation to his client, and said the crown needed something more than mere suspicion.

He said a permanent stay of proceedings was warranted because suspicion of a crime was not enough.

Mr Temby said the concealment charge was legally invalid because it was impossible to prove Fletcher committed the indictable offence.

If successful the application would mean a hearing would never go ahead.

Mr Temby told the court that delays in the case were unprecedented, and that proceedings were doomed to fail.

He said a continuation of proceedings was an abuse of the court's processes and argued a permanent stay of proceedings was warranted, given that 45 years have passed since Fletcher's alleged offence.

The court heard the Cessnock-born Wilson was told about the Fletcher incident five years after it happened.

Mr Temby argued Wilson was not complicit in the incident, nor was he a witness to it.

Magistrate Robert Stone will make a ruling later this month.