AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Dan Cox
A former bishop of the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church has told a New South Wales inquiry into child sexual abuse his predecessor had a briefcase containing secret files.
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox sparked the Special Commission with claims the church protected two paedophile priests.
Documents tendered at the commission show three former Maitland-Newcastle bishops, including Michael Malone, knew about abuse by priests James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.
Bishop Malone today gave evidence at the public hearings in Newcastle, with around 50 people packing out the gallery.
He was the Maitland-Newcastle bishop from 1995 to 2011, and is the first church witness to come under examination at the inquiry.
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