Peter Creigh’s letter that led to Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson’s downfall

CONCEALED in a “secret file” for years, this is the letter from a paedophile priest’s victim that ultimately led to the downfall of an Archbishop found guilty of covering up the crime.

Archbishop Philip Wilson pictured in Adelaide. Inset: Images to a letter sent by Peter Aiden Creigh, pictured right, revealing sexual abuse at the hands of Father James Fletcher.

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• Wilson stands down but doesn’t resign
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IT was the two-page letter to a senior New South Wales Catholic Bishop that sat in church archives as a ticking time bomb for three years — but when it was uncovered it exploded with unprecedented consequences.

The Advertiser can reveal how that letter, written in 2010, led to the downfall of Adelaide Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson, who stood down yesterday, after his landmark conviction for covering up child sex abuse.

The letter’s content was as explosive as it was harrowing — detailing the 1971 assaults on an altar boy at the hands of paedophile priest James Fletcher, who then “physically and verbally threatened” his victim to keep silent.

But its author, Peter Aidan Creigh, made another startling allegation as he broke his “long silence … to help lift the burden I have carried for 40 years”. He had told a priest — Wilson — of the abuse in 1976.

Wilson had risen to become South Australia’s Catholic Church leader but was then a junior priest, aged 25.

The letter, dated July 29, 2010 and addressed to the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, remained hidden for three years until a “secret file” of internal church documents was discovered by an official inquiry.

Archbishop Philip Wilson was found guilty at Newcastle Local Court. Picture: AAP / Peter Lorimer

Father-of-six Mr Creigh, now 57, had told his family less than a year earlier how Wilson’s predatory former flatmate James “Jim” Patrick Fletcher had inflicted horrific “acts of punishment”.

For his devout Catholic relatives, including mother Betty, 89 — whose husband Aidan, died in 2006 aged 77 — and his five sisters, the disclosures were heartbreaking.

They were, and remain, “amazingly supportive”, Mr Creigh said yesterday.

“I had a choice. If I didn’t tell them it would have got to me and I would have become another statistic,” he said.

The family’s collective distress at the “ultimate betrayal” was compounded by their friendship with Fletcher — who died in prison in 2006 aged 65 — and Wilson, as well as the church’s steadfast refusal to acknowledge any “hurt”.

Sitting at his computer in 2010, real estate worker Mr Creigh wept as he wrote to the Most Rev Michael Malone, then in charge of the local Hunter Valley catholic community, north of Sydney.

Peter Creigh’s letter

The letter, he wrote, came after long deliberation and after years in which he had “tried to live with these terrible events pushed to the back or my mind”. He had, until then, lacked the courage to come forward but stressed he was not jumping on any “bandwagon”. The abuse and cover up, he added, left his body “straining to handle the pressure”.

“Your Worship I sit here with tears rolling down my cheeks as this has been the most difficult thing to do,” he wrote.

He did not blame the church completely, just its systems and culture. “For us victims of sexual abuse our lives will not be the same again, we have been mentally, and in some cases physically scarred for life — that is the sad part.”

It was, however, 105 words that would leave the church in crisis almost eight years later when Wilson, 67, was found guilty at Newcastle Local Court of concealing the abuse.

He wrote how Wilson — someone he had come to “like and trust” — was told in 1976 about Fletcher’s criminal, predatory behaviour.

While Wilson, he wrote, “couldn’t believe” the claims, he promised to get it “looked into”. NSW magistrate Robert Stone this week ruled Wilson did not do this but instead covered it up to protect the church’s “image”.

Bishop Malone, now retired, rang him a few weeks later, and then visited him at home, during which the pair discussed his letter and what redress could occur. But at no stage did he urge Mr Creigh to go to police, nor when he wrote in September. He instead detailed what “personal support” was on offer.

Mr Malone will never face charges.

Government lawyers with the Special Commission of Inquiry into matters relating to the police investigation of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, discovered the letter in 2013.

When one rang him on holidays, Mr Creigh did not know who they were, let alone what they were investigating — mistakenly believing it was work-related. But later, over coffee, officials revealed what they did and asked if he would speak to police about Wilson.

Within 48 hours he was being interviewed by the head of a special police task force, Detective Acting Inspector Jeff Little, who was investigating the diocese. It was Mr Creigh’s “truthful” and “credible” evidence that helped secure Wilson’s conviction, despite the clergyman’s strident denials and four failed attempts to dismiss the case.

The letter back

Other victims, and their families, gave strikingly similar evidence about what they told Wilson over the 1970s and 1980s — and then between 2004 and 2006 which police successfully charged him over.

For his crime, the Archbishop now faces up to two years in prison — a sentence prosecutors say should be served in custody.

Wilson has refused to resign as he contemplates an appeal.

Mr Creigh yesterday told The Advertiser that it “was the darkest time of my life”.

“For my family to inherit this and to be so strong and supportive of me is mind-blowing,” he said. “I would not have been able to do it on my own, without a doubt.”

His mother, who was forced to listen to graphic evidence at Wilson’s trial, said: “I am so proud of him”.

Peter Creigh with his wife Kim and children, from left, Cam Creigh, Marty Creigh, Katie Jenkins, Julia Creigh, Mindy Jenkins and Harry Jenkins at Nobby's Beach in Newcastle. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

His six children with second wife Kim, 50, have also told of their collective pride.

Their “Brady Bunch” children Cam, 28, Katie, 27, Marty, 26, Mindy, 25, Julia, 23 and Harry, 22 — who attended court for this week’s verdict — added: “We are incredibly proud of dad for standing up for justice not only for himself but all victims. We hope the outcome ... creates a change of culture within the Catholic Church and hope (it) allows other victims to finally stand up and hold the church accountable for their actions.

“We can’t help but imagine how dad’s life would have been different if Wilson had listened and validated him as a 15-year-old boy rather then sweeping it under the rug.”

His sisters Helen, 62, Colleen, 61, Louise, 58, Kathryn, 52, and Mary Jane, 47, praised their brother’s “bravery” and “selflessness”. Wilson faces a pre-sentence hearing next month.