Former Australian archbishop Philip Wilson was met by outraged victims as he left the courthouse with no jail time. Wilson’s conviction was a landmark ruling in Australia that could affect other cases around the country.
An Australian court on Tuesday ruled Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic official to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse, will serve his one-year prison sentence in home detention.
Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone ordered Wilson to be detained at his sister’s house with a non-parole period of at least six months.
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He will be under strict supervision, and will be required to wear a tracking device that will alert authorities if he leaves the house.
The magistrate’s decision was met with outrage by victims who were waiting outside the courthouse.
In May, the court found Wilson guilty of failing to alert police to the repeated abuse of two altar boysby pedophile priest James Fletcher in the state of New South Wales in the 1970s. Wilson was an assistant priest at the time.
Stone found Wilson had shown no remorse or contrition for his actions, and that his primary motive had been to protect the Catholic Church.
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