AUSTRALIA
9 News
At least five senior Catholic priests were well aware of sexual abuse allegations against serial Hunter Valley paedophile priest Denis McAlinden years before a church official notified police, a special commission of inquiry has heard.
Speaking on behalf of McAlinden victims, Barrister Maria Gerace said former Maitland/Newcastle diocese bishops Leo Clarke and Michael Malone; former vicar generals Bill Burston and Allan Hart; and Fr Brian Lucas, a church law expert who had investigated more than 30 cases of alleged child sexual abuse by NSW Catholic priests all knew about the allegations.
Ms Gerace was addressing commissioner Margaret Cunneen in Newcastle Supreme Court on the second last day of public hearings into how police and church leaders handled child sexual abuse allegations involving two Hunter priests, Fr McAlinden and James Fletcher.
A church official notified police in 1999 of some allegations against Fr McAlinden, but as his whereabouts were allegedly unknown by church leaders he was then not spoken to by police until 2005, shortly before he died of cancer in a West Australian Catholic home.
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