Cleric gets 12 months over abuse cover-up

THE MOST senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse has been sentenced in an Australian court to 12 months in detention.

Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone ordered Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson to serve at least six months before he is eligible for parole.

But Wilson will not immediately go into custody. Mr Stone will consider on August 14 whether Wilson is suitable for home detention. He could live with his sister near Newcastle.

Mr Stone in May found the 67-year-old cleric guilty in the Newcastle Local Court of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s. Wilson faced a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Survivors of abuse who protested against the church outside the court on Tuesday called on Wilson to resign as archbishop.

The sentencing was 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 last month told the magistrate Wilson must be jailed to send a message that such institutional cover-ups will no longer be tolerated.

Australian state governments are ramping up pressure on the church to report child abuse and are legislating to prosecute priests who maintain that revelations of paedophilia made in the confessional cannot be disclosed.