AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
Read the letter to one of his victims here
Read a letter to Reverand Pedro Bantigue here
Letters presented to the Special Commission of Inquiry
By JASON GORDON July 4, 2013
THESE are the letters that show how much the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese knew about the behaviour of paedophile priest Denis McAlinden.
For decades, the region’s most senior clergy knew about his offending, shared information among themselves, and became increasingly worried that victims would go to police.
They saw fit to ostracise McAlinden, pictured, strip him of his priestly duties and send him overseas, even warning senior international clergy of his tendencies, but they never took the information to police.
The letters are among dozens so far tendered to the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle. Commissioner Margaret Cunneen on Thursday agreed to them being made public.
In one, a psychiatrist hired to evaluate McAlinden’s state of mind said the priest admitted to becoming ‘‘a little over familiar with children’’.
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