The highest ranking official in the Roman Catholic Church to be convicted of covering up the sexual abuse of altar boys has just been sentenced.
The Australian Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, was found guilty in May. He will have to serve six months under house detention. CNN calls it “a landmark conviction that could have far-reaching implications for other clergy members as the child sexual abuse scandal continues to hit the Catholic Church globally.”
Wilson’s sentence was actually 12 months in prison, but the court decided to alter the sentence, due to his age and health, to six months detention and six months parole.
In May he had been convicted of covering up child sex abuse in the 1970’s by pedophile priest James Fletcher, who went on to commit additional acts of child sex abuse. In 2004 Fletcher was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He died in 2006.
Wilson is suffering the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
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