AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
BY PAUL MAGUIRE AAP JULY 18, 2013
A CATHOLIC priest, second in charge of the Maitland/Newcastle diocese for about seven years until 2005, said on Thursday he had no recollection of the diocese buying a one-way ticket to Papua New Guinea for pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden.
In evidence to a special NSW commission of inquiry, the Hunter Valley’s former vicar general and now Newcastle suburban parish priest, Fr Bill Burston, attributed a “substantial” degree of his memory loss to general anesthetic he said he had received for ten surgical operations between 2004 and last year.
When asked by a barrister assisting the commission, David Kell, if he was aware of another diocese-funded one-way ticket for Fr McAlinden to go to England, Fr Burston said “no”.
Would such tickets have been unusual, Mr Kell asked.
“They would be,” Fr Burston answered.
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