The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is fighting to have charges that he covered up child sexual abuse reports thrown out of court.
This is the fourth time Wilson has attempted to have the case rejected.
Last year he lost an attempt in Sydney’s Court of Appeal to rule the charges invalid.
His barrister Stephen Odgers unsuccessfully argued his client was not fit to stand trial due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Two separate applications were also denied by a magistrate and a Supreme Court judge.
Wilson is the world’s most senior Catholic to be charged with covering up abuse.
He is accused of concealing child sexual abuse by Fr Jim Fletcher in the 1970s.
As an assistant parish priest, he worked with Fletcher, who died in prison in 2006.
Wilson has declared under oath that two former altar boys never told him they had been sexually abused by Fletcher.
He said he had no memory of one of the boys telling him in 1976 he’d been sexually abused as a 10-year old by Fletcher five years earlier.
He told the Court his first priority would have been to provide pastoral care to the then 15-year-old boy and his family; he would also have reported the allegations to his superiors.
In the current attempt to have the case dismissed, Odgers told the Court he would be making a “no case” submission which would “take some time.”
Odgers asked the Court to include two character references to show Wilson had a tendency to follow Church protocol and report alleged abuses.
However, Crown Prosecutor Gareth Harrison said while he would not oppose the references, their evidence was too general.
In his opinion, this was at the heart of what the case was about: “Does the accused have the tendency to do that, and regularly do that?” he asked.
“What his attitude was to reporting matters in 1976 is not made clear in the statements.”
The Magistrate adjourned the case to consider the possible inclusion of extra evidence.
Source
- ABC
- The Guardian
- Image: ABC
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