Australian archbishop found guilty of concealing child sex abuses
Canberra, May 22: An Australian court has found Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson guilty of concealing child sexual abuse cases, media reported on Monday. He faces a maximum jail term of upto two years.
Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, becomes the most senior Catholic in the world to be charged and convicted of the offence, the BBC reported.
He was found to have covered up the abuse of altar boys by a paedophile priest in New South Wales in the 1970s. Wilson will be sentenced in June.
During his trial, Wilson denied any memory of being told about the abuse by two of the boys.
He told the Newcastle court he had not been aware of priest James Fletcher's abuse, which took place while he was an assistant priest in Maitland, the BBC report added.
Fletcher was convicted of nine child sexual abuse charges in 2004 and died in jail in 2006.
One of his victims, Peter Creigh, told the court he had described the abuse to Wilson in detail when he was 15, five years after the abuse, the BBC reported.
Magistrate Robert Stone rejected Wilson's assertion that he could not remember the conversation and said he found Creigh to be a reliable witness.
The priest knew "what he was hearing was a credible allegation and the accused wanted to protect the Church and its reputation", said Magistrate Stone.
Wilson's lawyers had attempted four times to get the case thrown out after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the BBC said.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
