AUSTRALIA
The Australian
FEBRUARY 16, 2015
Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney
TWO senior Catholic priests have stood down from the church after being criticised in a damning report from a state inquiry set up to examine the alleged cover-up of child abuse in the NSW Hunter Valley.
The men, former vicars-general of the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, retired after a church advisory panel upheld the findings of last year’s special commission of inquiry led by Margaret Cunneen SC.
Monsignor Allan Hart was found by the commission to have given “misleading” evidence in relation to his “central role” in the diocese’s handling of allegations against a serial child-abuser, Denis McAlinden, during the early 1990s.
He was also found to have known about the church’s decision to send McAlinden to England after the allegations against him came to light. McAlinden, who sexually abused dozens of young girls, died in 2005 before he could be charged by police.
Reverend William Burston, who succeeded Monsignor Hart as vicar-general in 1996, was found by the commission to be “an unimpressive witness” who used the phrase “I can’t recall” or similar terms more than 60 times while on the witness stand.
His “complete absence of recollection in relation to many matters concerning McAlinden … was in stark contrast with his sharp and specific recollection of things that might be perceived as tending to explain his past conduct”, the commission found.
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