Archbishop Philip Wilson makes last-ditch bid to have charge of concealing child sex abuse thrown out

SOUTH Australia’s most senior Catholic Church leader is making yet another attempt to have his landmark sex abuse cover-up case thrown out as his health “significantly” improves, a court has heard.

The Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson leaves the Newcastle Local Court. Picture: Darren Pateman / AAP

• December: Prosecution of Archbishop delayed
• Archbishop covered up claims for decades, court told
• Victim gives harrowing evidence
• Archbishop paid victim’s family, court hears

SOUTH Australia’s most senior Catholic Church leader will launch a last-ditch bid to have his landmark sex abuse cover up case thrown out as his health “significantly” improves, a court has heard.

The Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Edward Wilson, 67, is standing trial in Newcastle Local Court, charged with concealing serious crimes within the church over the past four decades.

The Archbishop, then a local junior priest, has become the world’s highest ranking church official to face prosecution over claims he failed to inform police of historic abuse of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

His trial, which centres on the abuse subjected by former altar boy Peter Aiden Creigh, was delayed last year after it was publicly revealed the Archbishop, of the CBD, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

After the case resumed on Monday, the court heard that his health had “improved significantly” amid a new medication regimen.

But as some of the abuse victims, and their families, watched from the public gallery, the court heard that his legal team will mount a “no case” submission on Tuesday to have the case dismissed mid-trial. It will be his fourth attempt to avoid prosecution.

Magistrate Robert Stone is also considering complex legal arguments from key witnesses on so-called “tendency” evidence. He will also rule on Tuesday.

Mr Creigh, now 57, bravely waived his anonymity last year after giving harrowing, and graphic, evidence how he was abused by a paedophile priest in 1976 when he was aged 10.

That priest, Father James Patrick Fletcher, abused Mr Creigh and two other altar boys at Maitland, near Newcastle, 165km north of Sydney.

Fletcher, 65, died in prison in 2006 while serving a 10-year prison term for abusing one of the other unnamed altar boys.

The Archbishop’s health has improved but his legal team will make a fourth attempt to have the case thrown out. Picture: Darren Pateman / AAP

The Archbishop, who has appeared to sleep and pray during the trial, accepts abuse occurred but denies being told about it as his lawyers dispute the accuracy of historic conversations.

On Monday, Stephen Odgers SC, defending, told the court it was “self-evidently absurd” to claim that his client continued to cover up abuse in the charged period between 2004 and 2006.

He said the cases were referred to police, meaning this showed a “tendency” that he had to inform any claims of “misconduct regarding Catholic Church clergy was reported to the proper authorities”.

He asked the magistrate to consider character statements from Monsignor David Cappo and another woman, Narelle Cray, who argued the Archbishop in fact took any allegations seriously and authorised police complaints.

But prosecutor Gareth Harrison argued the statements were “too broad” and did not show any evidence about the Archbishop’s personal actions.

“He was someone there to protect the reputation of the church,” he said. “The reasons (why he failed to report it) are obvious.

“It would have ruined his reputation that he had known about it all these years but (he) did not say anything. The prosecution case is he did not follow up … because of the damage that would have done to his reputation.”

The Archbishop was diagnosed with early stages of dementia after sustaining head injuries from a “nasty” fall on October 11 that left him unconscious and needing hospital treatment.

His lawyers also revealed he had a pacemaker installed after concerns about his ailing health and worries about his “cognitive capacities”. He also suffers from diabetes.

The trial continues.