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…