Jailing Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson would send clear message over covering up child abuse, court told

JAILING Adelaide’s Catholic Church leader would send a “clear message” that covering up institutional child sex abuse was no longer tolerated, despite fears it could kill him, a court has heard.

• Guilty: Adelaide Catholic leader Philip Wilson concealed child sex abuse
• The letter that led to Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson’s downfall

JAILING Adelaide’s Catholic Church leader would send a “clear message” that covering up institutional child sex abuse was no longer tolerated, despite fears it could kill him, a court has heard.

A remorseless Adelaide Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson, 67, lied because of an “unflinching loyalty” and should be held accountable for his crimes, prosecutors argued on Tuesday.

But Newcastle Local Court also heard how jailing the sick and frail clergyman could “threaten his survival” from stress, or leave him at risk of extreme prison violence.

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson leaves Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday after sentencing submissions for covering up child abuse. Picture: AAP / Darren Pateman

Prosecutors believe Wilson should be jailed but defence lawyers argue a bond and conviction is adequate due to his good character, lack of criminal history and poor health.

Wilson has not resigned since his guilty verdict. He has stood down and asked people to “pray for me”. Victims have urged him to quit or for the Vatican to sack him.

Wilson faces up to two years jail for covering up for paedophile priest Father James Patrick Fletcher around Newcastle in the 1970s and 1980s.

He is the highest ranking church official worldwide to be successfully prosecuted for failing to tell authorities about such crimes after being found guilty last month of concealing a serious indictable offence between April 22, 2004, and January 7, 2006.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison on Tuesday told a pre-sentence hearing that Wilson was an intelligent, articulate but “untruthful” man whose cover up was not made in a “split second”.

“The Crown submission is he lied,” he said. “The root of these lies is the unflinching loyalty to the Catholic Church and to protect it at all costs.”

Mr Harrison said the community no longer tolerated the “endemic cover up of child sex abuse”.

“Ill health is not a licence to commit crimes,” he said.

“He thought he had got away with this for all these years. There is no contrition or remorse.”

Jail would be a general deterrent, would adequately punish him, recognise the harm to victims and denounce his crimes, he said.

Ian Temby QC, for Wilson, said prison would be “unusually hard on him” and could “even threaten his survival”.

Mr Temby, one of the country’s leading barristers, described the crime as below the “medium” range and akin to a “simple assault”.

Medical reports revealed a “complex range of conditions” including Alzheimer’s, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnoea and “recurrent falls”. He has a pacemaker.

“(He is a) relatively old man in poor health and a custodial sentence would be unusually hard upon him,” Mr Temby said.

Character references included one from Monsignor David Cappo, who argued Wilson was a “true leader of the church” and instrumental in fighting child abuse. Wilson will be sentenced in a fortnight.