AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By IAN KIRKWOOD July 19, 2013
A SENIOR Maitland-Newcastle Diocese figure has had his cross-examination cut short after concerns about his treatment outside the special commission of inquiry were accepted by Commissioner Margaret Cunneen.
Former diocese vicar-general William Burston will now resume his evidence next Friday, July 26.
Explaining her decision, Commissioner Cunneen accepted that the ‘‘unacceptable behaviour’’ that Father Burston was subjected to outside the inquiry on Wednesday may have affected his ability to give his evidence fully.
Father Burston was followed into the witness box by Monsignor Allan Hart, a former vicar-general of the diocese under Bishop Michael Malone’s predecessor, Bishop Leo Clarke.
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