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THE inquiry into child sex abuse and alleged cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese took another dramatic turn yesterday with allegations that senior clergy knew about, and covered up, sexual abuse for more than 50 years.
It heard that the Church had a file on disgraced paedophile priest Denis McAlinden that "you couldn't jump over".
Members of the packed gallery wept as Commissioner Margaret Cunneen opened the second stage of hearings in Newcastle yesterday.
They cried again when counsel assisting Ms Cunneen, Julia Lonergan, said the inquiry would hear allegations that the diocese knew of the abuse being inflicted on children by McAlinden as early as 1953.
She said the inquiry would produce letters from diocesan archives that suggested senior clergy covered up for McAlinden before he went on to molest scores more children. In one letter, a senior clergyman describes McAlinden's penchant "for the little ones only".
The region's current Catholic Bishop Bill Wright was granted an opening address to the inquiry of his own, offering an "unreserved apology" to Church abuse victims.