Sex abuse victims ‘not believed’, court told

Child sex abuse victims sought the help of Philip Wilson, but were not believed, a court hears.

Archbishop Philip Wilson arrives at Newcastle Local Court yesterday. Picture: AAP

Child sex abuse victims desperately sought the assistance of now Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson after horrific encounters with the late Father James Fletcher, but were met with disbelief or accu­sations of “telling lies”, a New­castle court heard yesterday.

The 67-year-old priest is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing the sexual assault of a child by pedophile priest Fletcher, who died in prison in 2006.

Armed with rosary beads, Archbishop Wilson spent several minutes in silent prayer before the court resumed, but appeared to doze off through the proceedings.

Witness Peter Creigh, 57, gave evidence of two conversations he had with the then Father Wilson in 1976. He said he told Father Wilson, the assistant parish priest at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in East Maitland, five years later about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of Fletcher.

“I said to Father Wilson that I had concerns over certain acts of punishment committed on me by a former priest of the parish,” Mr Creigh said.

He allegedly told Father Wilson that Fletcher asked him to strip naked and kneel on the floor before he started to masturbate in front of him.

“He then, with the pressure of his finger and his thumb on the back of my neck, pressured me to continue to masturbate him until he ejaculated,” Mr Creigh said.

“Father Wilson asked if I had mentioned it to anyone else. I said no, I had not even mentioned it to my parents.”

Despite promising to investigate Fletcher’s behaviour, Mr Creigh claimed Father Wilson had still not acted six months later.

The court heard Mr Creigh turned to alcohol in adulthood to deal with the shame associated with his assault.

He said the “collar of guilt was heavy and tight” and the only way he felt he could deal with it was to resort to alcohol. “If something had been done, then maybe a lot of Fletcher’s other victims may not have been abused,” he said.

The second witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 10 when he allegedly sought Father Wilson’s guidance.

The former altar boy was forced by Fletcher to strip down to his underwear beneath his church robes, before he grabbed his genitalia through the garment’s open pockets.

On another occasion he followed the victim into a bathroom, pulled out his penis and demanded that the boy hold it for him so he could urinate. After he had finished, he thanked the child and called him a “a good boy”.

Years later, the victim sought Father Wilson’s help in the confession box. “I said to him that I didn’t know if I have been bad … that I had played with Father Fletcher’s penis,’’ the victim said.

“I told him: ‘I got caught up with Father Fletcher and ended up in a car with him … and I had to place my mouth over his penis where you go to the toilet.’

“He said: ‘You’re making this up, I think you’re telling lies, where did you get this story from?’

“Father Wilson then turned around and said that Father Fletcher was a good bloke … get out go say 10 Hail Mary’s in the church.”

The trial continues today.