Adelaide Archbishop accused of cover-up has Alzheimer’s

Australia’s most senior Catholic archbishop accused of covering up child sexual abuse has failed to turn up to court because he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s on the eve of his trial.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson, 67, was meant to be fronting Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, on Tuesday.

However, his legal team told Magistrate Caleb Franklin he was still in South Australia because he had a pacemaker fitted six days ago, the ABC reported.

The court heard he was also diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s on Monday. 

This was on the eve of his trial for allegedly concealing child sex abuse by paedophile priest James Fletcher, in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese, during the 1970s, the Adelaide Advertiser reported.

Wilson, Australia’s most senior Catholic Archbishop accused of covering up historic child sex abuse, was arrested in 2015 and has tried to obtain an permanent stay of the delay legal proceedings three times, without success. 

 However, Archbishop Wilson’s barrister Stephen Odgers told the court his client wanted to answer the charges before a magistrate.

‘I’m confident that the advice I’ve received is that one week is OK and he will be able to fly up here on Wednesday afternoon,’ the ABC reported him as saying.

Archbishop Wilson is accused of covering up the activities of paedophile priest James Fletcher

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson was a no show at Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday

Mr Odgers said the Archbishop’s medication could take several months to work, which meant his cognitive abilities would be impaired until then.

‘There are serious problems with respect to the defendant participating in the trial … with the possibility of him giving evidence,’ he said.

Magistrate Franklin is considering an application to delay the trial because of the senior Catholic leader’s cognitive state. 

The trial is regarded as a landmark test case, following a series of cover-up allegations made at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.