AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun
Special commission of inquiry into Catholic Church sex abuse cover-ups to proceed in Newcastle
NEIL KEENE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JULY 02, 2013
EVIDENCE of more than 50 years of Catholic Church cover-ups, including a paedophile priest sent overseas to escape scrutiny, is to be aired finally at a special commission of inquiry in Newcastle.
The inquiry’s second chapter got under way yesterday. The senior counsel assisting the commission, Julia Lonergan SC, said documents from the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese showed that as far back as 1953, paedophile priest Denis McAlinden sexually abused a young girl.
Her parents reported the abuse to the church to no avail.
Inquiry told police reluctant to prosecute church
A later victim – a boy who was abused for years from the age of five at the hands of McAlinden – told his own parish priest what was happening during one of his first confessions, but it never went further.
“This boy was given penance, apparently for his sin in being abused by that priest,” Ms Lonergan said.
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