The New South Wales director of public prosecutions will not be appealing against the decision of a judge who quashed former archbishop Philip Wilson’s conviction for covering up child sex abuse by a pedophile priest.

A magistrate convicted Wilson earlier this year but district court judge Roy Ellis in early December ordered the clergyman be discharged.

The judge said there was a reasonable doubt whether Wilson remembered being told about the abuse in 1976 or believed the victim had been preyed upon by paedophile priest James Fletcher.

He said suspicion was not a substitute for proof.

The NSW attorney general immediately asked the DPP to consider appealing the decision but on Thursday revealed prosecutors did not intend to pursue the case further.

“The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has informed me this afternoon that it does not intend to commence an appeal from the decision of district court Judge Ellis to dismiss the charge against former archbishop Philip Wilson,” the attorney general, Mark Speakman, said in a statement. “I have requested independent legal advice on the matter.”

The ODPP on Thursday noted “an appeal can only be made on errors of law”.

“After careful consideration, it was decided that there were no reasonable prospects of success of appeal on errors of law,” a spokeswoman told News Corp in a statement.