A dead priest holds the key to proving former archbishop Philip Wilson was innocent of covering up child sex abuse by a pedophile priest in NSW to protect the Catholic Church, a court has heard.
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Defence barrister Stephen Odgers told the Newcastle District Court on Tuesday that previous statements given by Father Greg Walsh, who died last year, showed Wilson was not motivated to keep child sex abuse allegations quiet.
Mr Odgers made the claim when outlining key parts of Wilson's appeal against his conviction.
The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions is also appealing against magistrate Robert Stone's decision to order Wilson, 68, serve 12 months' home detention. The DPP argues the sentence is too lenient.
Wilson had been facing a maximum two years' jail when sentenced on August 14 to spend at least six months' detention at his sister's home before being eligible for parole.
Mr Odgers told Judge Roy Ellis that Wilson was not in court on Tuesday as he was serving his sentence in home detention but could appear if required.
In his appeal submission, Mr Odgers said the magistrate and the DPP had failed to give sufficient weight to the statements made by Fr Walsh before he died.
The barrister said Fr Walsh told how a young boy in the NSW Hunter region came to him to complain that pedophile priest James Fletcher had been abusing him.
Fr Walsh then contacted Bishop Michael Malone to tell him what Fletcher was doing but the bishop ordered him to keep quiet and not tell anyone about it.
Mr Odgers said Fr Walsh, disappointed at the bishop's attitude, contacted Wilson in 2004 when he was the archbishop of Adelaide.
Fr Walsh claimed Wilson urged him to find out what the protocol was for a priest to report child sexual abuse and follow it.
Mr Odgers said this showed Wilson was "not motivated to keep these kind of allegations quiet".
The prosecution case against Wilson was that he had been told by two altar boys in 1976 how they were being abused by Fletcher and he did nothing about it, and later failed to go to the police after Fletcher went on trial in 2004 for preying on another boy.
Wilson was forced to resign as archbishop in July after becoming the most senior Catholic clergyman in the world to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse.
The clergyman claims he can't remember the two altar boys telling him in 1976 they were abused by Fletcher.
Fletcher was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing another boy and died of a stroke in jail in January 2006.
The appeals continue.
Australian Associated Press
