Australian leaders join calls for resignation of Wilson, who plans to appeal conviction for concealing child sexual abuse

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Catholic archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is facing unprecedented calls from across the political arena to resign as he prepares to challenge his conviction for concealing child sexual abuse.

The most senior Catholic official in the world to be convicted of concealing child abuse is likely to serve his 12-month sentence in home detention.

Wilson, 67, plans to appeal his conviction and says he will only resign if that fails.

The premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, has joined the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and opposition leader, Bill Shorten, in calling for Wilson to resign immediately.

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“He’s been convicted, he’s been sentenced. I think it’s untenable to remain in that position,” Marshall told the Adelaide Advertiser on Thursday.

The New South Wales police minister, Troy Grant, a former police officer who was involved in investigations into child abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle area in 1995, said the sentence handed to Wilson was appalling.

“This is no deterrent as a sentence, it’s appalling, the children deserve better, the victims deserve better, and the community do,” Grant told 2GB radio.

The vice-president of the Judicial Conference of Australia, Justice Judith Kelly, warned Grant against complaining while proceedings remained on foot.

She said the minister repeatedly accused the magistrate of failing to apply a recent change to sentencing legislation, even though it had not yet become law and did not apply to the offence.

“The court and an individual magistrate has been unfairly used as a political football in a manner which can only harm public confidence in our system of criminal justice,” Kelly said.

Wilson stood aside as archbishop in May after being found guilty of failing to report to police the historical sexual abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest, after a magistrate-only trial in Newcastle local court.



On Tuesday the magistrate sentenced Wilson to 12 months’ imprisonment with six months’ non-parole, but ordered he be assessed for an order allowing him to serve his sentence in the community.

Wilson on Wednesday confirmed he would lodge an appeal to the NSW district court, saying he had seriously considered the calls for him to resign but would only do so if his appeal was unsuccessful.

Father Frank Brennan, the chief executive of Catholic Social Services Australia, said Wilson should step down “for the good of everyone” after a difficult week for the Catholic church and victims.

“You’ve been already four or six years before the courts, you’re going to have another year or two before the courts,” he told Sky News.

“You’re not doing anything to help the archdiocese of Adelaide, you’re not doing anything to help the victims, you’re not doing anything to help the Australian community heal after what we’ve been through with the royal commission.”