McAlinden then found opportunities to be alone with his young victims for extended periods and molested them in his car or while getting them to sit on his knees in empty churches.
When opportunity arose, he was not adverse using the privacy of the confessional booth – a perfect vehicle for a deviate of his nature.
N.Z Truth Magazine (26th March 2009) describes McAlinden as “addicted to preying on girls under the age of 12”.
One victim said he stopped his abuse when she began menstruating, around 12.
The truth of the matter is Father Denis McAlinden is likely to have been Australasia’s worst known sex-offender.
Despite the scale of longevity of his criminal activities, McAlinden died in Western Australia in complete anonymity, whilst on the run from Police, unpunished for his crimes.
The true number of his Australian and New Zealand victims, and extent of his crimes, will never be known, but offences must surely number in the hundreds if not thousands.
Over his five plus decades of abuse, victims and their families repeatedly reported his offending to Catholic Church authorities in New South Wales and Western Australia.
The in-house ‘punishment’(if one can term it that) meted-out to their brother in Christ was to shuffle him ‘back & forward’ from his home diocese in Newcastle, NSW to Western Australia, Papua Guinea and then to the East Coast of New Zealand, via Hamilton.
No one in the Catholic Church on either side of the Tasman bothered to warn parishioners he was a predator and a threat to any child in his care, nor to take the obvious course of action.
That was to, report him to the civil authorities.
It took till 2007, two years after McAlindens death, for the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese to publicly apologise for their 50 year policy of inactivity & remaining silent in the face of the overwhelming evidence. And, that was only after victims ‘went public’ and their lawyers came knocking.
Such is the magnitude & length of his offending, investigations have subsequently shown McAlinden had a ‘tainted record’ dating back prior even to his arrival in Australia from Ireland in 1949.
The now deceased Catholic Bishop of Waikato, Edward Gaines, surely must have known McAlinden was ‘a bad apple’ when he was shoved into his care for six months in 1984. By that stage McAlinden has been in no less than 10 different dioceses, all of which he was forced to leave 'under a cloud'.
For the current Catholic Bishop of Waikato, Dennis Brown (N.Z Truth Magazine, 26th March 2009) to belatedly express his indignatious “horror” at McAindens offending is to completely ignore the ‘public record’ and more to the point, the files that the his church (now facing civil action from victims) keeps from public view.
The very files Bishop Brown and his cohorts (plus their Corporate lawyers, well versed in defending cases of this nature, by now) well know exist, and would reveal the complicit role successive Bishops both here and in Australia had in this sordid affair.
The time for expressing “horror” was when the first of these complaints of ‘inappropriate touching’ was issued - less than a year after his arrival in Australia.
In case Bishop Dennis Brown, needs reminding that first known complaint was in 1950, thirty-four years before his name-sake in a dog-collar arrived in New Zealand.
Bishop Brown wants to take a reality check.
Father Denis’s dubious record, dating back three plus decades and more, must have ‘swept before him’ before his arrival to Hamilton, and it’s therefore hard to consider Bishop Gaines any less complicit in this cover-up than the three Bishops (1949-1995)in Australia overseeing him.
Unequivocally, half-a-centuries of allegations of abuse by Father McAlinden, were systematically ‘buried’ and stymied by The Catholic Church in both Australia and New Zealand.
By default victims were created by The Catholic Church, and then ignored.
The preservation of The Churches name was paramount - little else.
This fertile ‘hunting’ ground was exploited mercilessly by a heartless pedophile of McAlinden’s nature.
Given what we know, it is little wonder, Catholic Father Denis McAlinden gained the dubious distinction as Australasia’s Biggest Sex Offender, and the Catholic Church in Australia (including N.Z claimants) now faces paying millions-out in compensation.
5 comments:
The silence from the brain-washed victims families for all those years is for me, staggering. They alert the men of god & love and then on instructions, no doubt, say nothing more. Not one, went to the police? Cult members first, parents & citizens last!
Once again, the problem will be buried under a mountain of money. In the US and other countries, churches have closed down, allegedly because of this cause of their financial troubles.
Meanwhile, the coffers replenish. What these cases need is a once-for-all decisive legal action, possibly with internationally binding reach. People need to go to jail. Covering up a case once is very bad. Doing so over decades is a severe crime. They need to learn this lesson, they need to learn that 'being the Church' can not be the slightest excuse for evil. They need to learn that evil does not go away by euphemising it as a 'problem'. Smokescreening it bothering about homosexual priests instead - who have nothing to do whatsoever with paedophilia - will not work. Covering up cases of sexual abuse (and any other sort) is system immanent. There is written, signed and publicized documentation that there is an implemented system to handle cases internally and preventing any independant examination or publication. The current Pope is one of the people who participated in formulating these rules.
They are at least on the brink to fulfilling the definition of a criminal organisation. And they keep confirming that this isn't just an assertion from the 'Church-hater' camp. As an outsider, I can only shake my head in pity at those well-meaning Catholics who desire to change the system from within. They are still too naive to have realized that the system depends on not changing. It depends on perpetuating dishonesty and obfuscation. There is no Truth at the core that wants to be set free. There is just a black heart of millenial power.
I was a victim of this man. I was 11 at the time. He was the parish priest at the Catholic School I was attending in Newcastle.. He took a special " interest " in the fact I was good at athletics and offered to train me for upcoming carnivals. He told my
Mum he was qualified to do this. The abuse is something I will struggle with for the rest of my life. It is just pure Mental torture. He visited my house nearly every day. He so good at what he did. I do remember a nun warning girls not to be alone with him. Too late for me. I had no choice but to be alone with him. He groomed my whole family. Everyone believed in him. Evil at it's best.
I too was a victim at St Josephs Merriwa under principle Mike Stanwell. What I would like to know is why students were not indiviually spoken too. I was touched during confessional, told to sit on his lap and his hands well they always traveled. Before leaving he would whisper and let me know how special I was and tell me I was his favorite and would slide lollies up my arm sleeves. Birthdays I remember were worst he touched more and gave statues as gifts. On weekends many times he would turn up with two nuns to our family farm stating they were picking up children who could not get into town for church. I remember myself and fellow siblings running to hide not wanting to leave with Father McAlindin my parents unaware saw only the kind gesture but recently told me this priest and nun use to enjoy getting into a bit of alcohol before leaving the farm. Many of us have been victims but not once at a young age was I asked and nieve and not knowing anything better I did not speak up or relise it was wrong at the time. Memories haunt even now at the age of 36
I am mortified after just reading tonight the sickening research done on this monster. I too attended St Joseph from Kindergarden to Year 5 and remember him. Principal Mike Stanwell. But being a young age i am now so worried as to what happened through out my time there as he often visited my home and like others, he offered my parents to take us girls to church on Sundays.He also asked my parents to visit him and stay when he was moved on to the Newcastle are. He would come out to the playground with with lollies wearing a leprachaun t-shirt and like above mentioned give lollies through confession. Often i was placed his lap and told i was special....I have been in touch with my mum tonight as i am now so concerned after what i have read and want to know answers. I do remember the stern warnings about it being out of bounds. I do remember once being in his living quarters at the back of the church, why...i cant remember. I feel for each victim, my heart goes out to each and every one and their family. I am now 35 years old and will be looking into this further now. I cant believe this was covered up ...40 years at that!
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