AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By IAN KIRKWOOD July 19, 2013,
Access the full inquiry transcripts here
ONE senior priest was stressed enough to be excused from giving evidence for a week and a second denied he was resisting being questioned, in a tense day of evidence at the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle on Friday.
Having angered sections of the public gallery for his inability to recall key events during his five years as second in charge of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese of the Catholic Church, Father William Burston was excused from giving further evidence for a week after about 90 minutes of yesterday’s hearing.
For the rest of the day, Hamilton parish priest Monsignor Allan Hart, who preceded Father Burston as vicar-general of the diocese, was questioned by counsel assisting, Julia Lonergan, who said that if Monsignor Hart did not let her finish her questions they would “be in for a very tortuous afternoon”.
Like Bishop Michael Malone before them, the two senior Church figures are being examined over their conduct in relation to police investigations concerning two paedophile priests – Denis McAlinden, who died in a church-run facility in Western Australia in 2005, and Jim Fletcher, who died in jail in 2006.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.