AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JOANNE McCARTHY
Feb. 12, 2013
TWENTY years ago a Hunter woman’s attempts to stop a paedophile priest from within the church allegedly ended with a one-way ticket to England for him, and defeated silence for his victim.
On Wednesday, as the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry opens an investigation of church and police responses to allegations about Denis McAlinden, the woman – a key witness – had a message for other victims.
‘‘Now is the time,’’ she said on Tuesday, about breaking the public silence that allowed McAlinden to commit crimes against children for more than 40 years.
Pope Benedict’s surprise retirement showed we were living in historic times, she said, but it was her experience of speaking to the Newcastle Herald in 2010, and then police, that led her to encourage victims to make a submission to the NSW inquiry.
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