The Newcastle Herald (Australia)
BY JOANNE MCCARTHY
08 Oct, 2011 04:00 AM
THE Catholic Church considered a ‘‘one-way ticket to England’’ for notorious Hunter paedophile priest Denis McAlinden almost 40 years after a bishop was first told of his offending, and in response to mounting evidence he was a predator of very young girls.
The ‘‘solution’’ to the McAlinden problem was discussed by senior church officials in the early 1990s, Newcastle police command’s Strike Force Lantle has been told.
The ‘‘one-way ticket’’ option was proposed after national publicity was generated when the priest was charged with child sex offences in Western Australia in 1992.
Although McAlinden successfully defended the charges, the church took the first step towards removing him from the priesthood in 1993 and discussed sending him from Australia.
Documents obtained by the Newcastle Herald and handed to police show that two years later, in October 1995, senior Australian church officials had roles in an attempted ‘‘speedy’’ secret defrocking as police investigated another Hunter paedophile priest, Vince Ryan.
The documents included letters in which McAlinden was assured his ‘‘good name would be protected by the confidential nature of this process’’ and the secret defrocking was ‘‘for the good of the church’’.
Strike Force Lantle was established to investigate church handling of the McAlinden case.
Detective Acting Superintendent Wayne Humphrey said police had ‘‘amassed a large amount of documents which has opened a number of further lines of inquiry’’.
‘‘It’s a particularly involved and complex investigation,’’ he said.
People with information are encouraged to contact police.
Other documents seen by the Herald show a Hunter couple told a bishop in the early 1950s that McAlinden had sexually assaulted their primary school-aged daughter three times.
The assaults occurred only four years after he arrived in Maitland-Newcastle diocese from Ireland in 1949, aged 26.
A warrant was issued for McAlinden’s arrest in 1999 when the woman reported the sexual assaults to police, who were advised by the church that the priest was not in Australia.
Maitland-Newcastle diocese paid the woman more than $130,000 in compensation in 2002. Another McAlinden victim was paid compensation the following year.
Although Catholic church representatives advised repeatedly that they did not know where McAlinden was living from the time the arrest warrant was issued, he died in a church-run facility in Western Australia in late 2005.
A woman who was sexually abused by McAlinden in the 1960s, when the priest took a group of very young Upper Hunter girls to Newcastle baths, recalled last week when McAlinden was sent by the church to Papua New Guinea for four years from 1969.
‘‘When I asked why he went my mother said, ‘He’s not a nice man. They’ve sent him to the missions’,’’ the woman said.
A woman who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by McAlinden in the 1960s from the age of five said she tried not to think about the priest but was ‘‘angry that people covered it up’’.
The Newcastle Herald has seen evidence that the church ordered a psychological evaluation of McAlinden in the late 1980s.
The evaluation was made two years after the priest was moved from an Upper Hunter parish to Port Stephens after allegations of child sexual abuse.
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Inquiry into church cover-up ‘disgrace’
Newcastle Herald
18 Apr, 2011 05:00 AM
BY JOANNE MCCARTHY
THE police investigation of an alleged Catholic Church cover-up of a Hunter paedophile priest has been branded a ‘‘disgrace’’ after nearly a year of delays, including the loss of a three-member strike force charged with investigating it.
Police were back to square one last week in an investigation of serial paedophile priest Denis McAlinden, one of only a handful of formal Australian investigations of alleged church cover-ups of child sex offender priests.
The appointment of Detective Inspector Graeme Parker to head Strike Force Lantle comes almost a year after the Newcastle Herald handed over church documents related to McAlinden.
The 1995 documents showed senior church figures tried to secretly force McAlinden from the priesthood, in full knowledge of the criminal nature of allegations against him, the ‘‘grave problems for the community’’ his behaviour represented, and without reporting him to police.
The documents showed bishops Michael Malone and Leo Clarke and future archbishop Phillip Wilson had roles in the secret defrocking at the time police were investigating another notorious Hunter paedophile priest, Vince Ryan.
One document assured McAlinden, whose victims were young girls aged four to 12, that his ‘‘good name would be protected by the confidential nature of this process’’.
But despite the documents, the referral of possible witnesses, and support for a full investigation by the Australian Lawyers Alliance and retired NSW Police assistant commissioner John Ure, the police investigation has struggled.
This week, Lawyers Alliance NSW spokesman Dr Andrew Morrison SC said the police handling of the matter was a ‘‘disgrace’’, and ‘‘it seems to me there has been a failure by the police force to pursue very serious issues despite regularly having it drawn to their attention’’.
Police handling of the matter has included:
● The failure of police to formally respond to a complaint about police treatment lodged by the first McAlinden victim contacted by investigators.
● The failure of a senior police officer with responsibility for the McAlinden matter to respond to an offer of help last year from the then police officer Troy Grant, who investigated Vince Ryan. Mr Grant, a newly-elected NSW government MP, said this week he was ‘‘obviously concerned there still seems to be issues that have to be fully investigated’’.
● The loss of experienced Strike Force Georgiana detective Shaun McLeod from the police service in June last year after his recommendation for a full investigation of the alleged McAlinden cover-up was rejected by senior police.
● Repeated rejection of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox’s offers to work on the McAlinden case, despite his investigation of the priest in 1999 when he issued a warrant for McAlinden’s arrest. The rejections last year culminated in an order that he hand over statements from several McAlinden victims and cease any involvement with the case. Chief Inspector Fox was also ordered not to make any comment to the media about the matter. Last week Inspector Fox gave evidence in a court hearing involving a serving police officer, which has included allegations of internal conflict about police handling of the matter from last April.
● Statements from witnesses alleging a senior Australian Catholic Church figure had knowledge of the serious nature of McAlinden’s offences in 1993 when he allegedly spoke directly to a number of McAlinden victims to take action against the priest. Police were not contacted. It was not until two years later, as police were about to charge Vince Ryan, that the church tried to secretly remove McAlinden from the priesthood.
● The transfer of the McAlinden case between police commands and the appointment of Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey to manage the case in December after the loss of a three-member strike force to stress and sick leave in the space of a week.
This week, Detective Inspector Graeme Parker conceded there had been problems but said ‘‘the matter will be fully investigated and any matters of criminality arising will be prosecuted’’.
‘‘I’ll use whatever resources I need,’’ he said.
Northern Region Commander Assistant Commissioner Carlene York said Strike Force Lantle had not been dormant.
‘‘This is a serious and complex matter currently under investigation and as such no comment can be made regarding the findings thus far. The community can be assured that NSW Police Force considers this a serious matter and is investigating it thoroughly,” she said.
I hope and pray those who covered-up in this mess are charged.
(formerly proudsurvivor) like Horrified, I’ve never been afraid to speak out and use My own name, but I do hold some caution regarding my identity on the internet. I can’t help but think that the documents for these cover-ups exist, or existed on most priests on your accused list. Thinking about McCann, why was he sent from being a teacher at St. Patrick’s School in Ottawa (1956), to work Tahsis, a remote corner of B.C? Why was he moved again in 1981 to Fort St. John BC, again a fairly remote and desolate area. I’m sure these ‘let’s just remove him from temptation) type correspondences took place,. I really wonder about the conversations that took place to transition him from
jail, to once again serving the faithful?!!!
I really think there were NO conversations- I believe he took a chance , inserted himself into a situation where some assistance was needed within 2 parishes in Ottawa, and offered to perfom some of it. No one bothered to check him out. Lazy and lax administration in this Archdiocese has been practiced for many years. GOD Bless.