"'What might my life have been if I had never met him?', and 'Why so much secrecy when so many people knew?"' Hunter man Peter Gogarty told the Special Commission of Inquiry yesterday.

Mr Gogarty, a victim of Father James Fletcher, cited earlier evidence to the inquiry and the view of experts that for the victim, child abuse "would never go away and it couldn't be undone".

It brought about "the fundamental remaking of the person who was abused".

He choked up and members of the public gallery wept as he told how some victims did not have the strength to go on.

Mr Gogarty paid tribute to his parents, who helped him to not only survive after his abuse but to thrive.

They were devout Catholics whose faith in their Church had been "severely tested and finally broken".

They had paid the price, he said, for his decision to speak out in recent years about his abuse and the diocese's handling of abuse matters.

Mr Gogarty said the inquiry had created goodwill and set a high standard for the royal commission to follow.

He also urged Commissioner Margaret Cunneen, SC, to take into account, when considering her findings, his high regard for former Newcastle bishop Michael Malone, who was "one of the few bishops in this country" to acknowledge his own failings in the handling of abuse matters and who put support measures in place for victims.

Earlier, barrister for Mr Malone, Simon Harben, SC, said his client had never shirked responsibility for the decision to keep Fletcher in place as a priest while police investigated him. In hindsight, he regretted speaking to Fletcher in 2002 after being told he was the subject of a complaint to police.

But Mr Harben said it did not occur to the bishop that he was tipping Fletcher off to an investigation.

Barrister for Father Brian Lucas, Peter Skinner, told the inquiry his client had received "offensive mail" and was unfairly criticised in the media for a Church document that stated paedophile priest Denis McAlinden had confessed to him, when other letters from the same period showed McAlinden refused to acknowledge his abuse.