Tears for decades of child abuse

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian August 02, 2013

A PEDOPHILE Catholic priest allegedly abused dozens of children across Australia and overseas over at least four decades, including after the church became aware of his crimes.

During its final day of public evidence yesterday, the NSW special commission of inquiry into church child abuse heard that a diocesan official had spoken to 28 of the priest’s victims, who were abused between 1949 and 1987.

Maureen O’Hearn, a current employee of the NSW diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, said Denis McAlinden had abused children in New Zealand and a number of Australian states.

A Catholic cleric in The Philippines, where McAlinden travelled and worked as a priest after being asked to retire from Maitland-Newcastle, told The Australian yesterday he feared the priest might have abused children there.

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