NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
The Associated Press
June 19, 2018
A prosecutor told an Australian court on Tuesday that the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse must be jailed to send a message that such institutional cover-ups will no longer be tolerated.
Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone said he would sentence Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson on July 3.
Stone last month found Wilson guilty in the Newcastle Local Court of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s. Wilson faces a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.
The conviction is another step toward holding the church to account for a global abuse crisis that has also engulfed Pope Francis’ financial minister, Australian Cardinal George Pell. Some lawyers said they expect many more clerics to be charged in Australia as a result of Wilson’s test case.
Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told a hearing Tuesday to determine an appropriate sentence that there was a “breach of trust” between the vulnerable teen, who — along with another altar boy — came forward in 1976 with allegations against a priest who later died in prison.
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