Adelaide Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson to stand aside

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson steps aside after becoming most senior Catholic in the world convicted for concealing child sexual abuse.

Archbishop Philip Wilson leaves the Newcastle Local Court yesterday.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, who is the most senior Catholic official in the world convicted of concealing child sexual abuse, has this morning bowed to intense public pressure and announced his intention to stand aside from Friday.

Adelaide morning radio was inundated with calls, including from Catholic school parents and board members, expressing disappointment he had not resigned after he was yesterday found guilty in a NSW court.

Magistrate Robert Stone said Wilson failed to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region in the 1970s.

The 67-year-old, who showed no emotion when found guilty at Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday, faces a maximum two years’ jail.

This morning, Wilson released a statement saying he had considered his position overnight.

“It is appropriate that, in the light of some of his Honour’s findings, I stand aside from my duties as Archbishop,” he said.

“I am now putting in place the necessary administrative arrangements to ensure that the affairs of the Archdiocese are managed responsibly.

“I therefore intend to step aside as of Friday this week once those arrangements are in place.

“If at any point in time it becomes necessary or appropriate for me to take more formal steps, including by resigning as Archbishop, then I will do so.

“In the meantime, while the remainder of the legal process runs its course, I want to assure the Catholic faithful in the Archdiocese of my continued prayers and best wishes and assure everyone that the affairs of the Archdiocese will be appropriately managed in my absence.”

Peter Creigh, a former altar boy who expected Wilson — an assistant priest at the time — to take action after he told him Fletcher repeatedly abused him when he was 10 in 1971, was a key witness in the landmark trial of Wilson.

Mr Stone accepted Creigh and another altar boy told Wilson in 1976 that Fletcher had repeatedly abused them but the clergyman did nothing. Fletcher was found guilty in December 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse. He died in jail of a stroke in January 2006.

The magistrate rejected claims by Wilson, who is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, that he could not remember the altar boys telling him of the abuse in 1976.

Prosecutor Gareth Harrison told the court Wilson should be jailed to deter others from trying to protect the Catholic Church from abuse allegations.

Sentencing is due to start on June 19.