Victims want apologies and answers from former Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson.
Wilson (67) has been convicted of concealing paedophile priest Jim Fletcher’s abusive behaviour in the 1970s.
As Wilson was leaving the Newcastle Local Court after being sentenced on Tuesday, a group of victims was waiting for him.
Peter Gogarty, who was one of Fletcher’s victims, asked Wilson to apologise.
“Philip, please, something – one word of contrition,” he called, when it became obvious Wilson was not going to answer.
Instead, one of Wilson’s supporters asked Gogarty why he’d waited 40 years to come forward.
The supporter is reported to have said, “I don’t have time for rubbish like you, mate.”
Gogarty then began yelling “you pig, you pig!”
He said he was “beside himself” because Wilson wouldn’t apologise.
“The grace has shown no grace,” Gogarty said.
“Will no one in the Catholic Church say sorry to me and others?”
Gogarty says he told Wilson of the abuse 40 years ago, because “40 years ago people opened their mouths to people like…[him]…who did absolutely nothing to help them.”
In May Wilson was sentenced to a year’s detention, of which six months is non-parole.
On Tuesday, Magistrate Robert Stone told the Newcastle Local Court Wilson was to begin serving his sentence immediately at his sister’s home.
In Stone’s opinion, Wilson is unlikely to offend again. He noted Wilson had expressed ‘no remorse or contrition,’ instead he was primarily motivated to protect the church.
Wilson’s lawyer says they would lodge an immediate appeal against Wilson’s conviction.
Source
- BBC News
- ABC
- Image: The Tablet