Hunter Child Sex Abuse Cover Up Case Prompts Harsher Penalties

BY IAN CROUCH

NSW Attorney General, Mark Speakman will today introduce new laws to parliament to increase the penalty for concealing child sex abuse.

It comes after former Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Phillip Wilson was handed a 12 month home detention sentence in Newcastle Local Court for concealing the child sex abuse of paedophile priest Jim Fletcher in the 1970's and 1980's.

The state's Attorney General will move the legislative amendments after more than 13,000 people, many of them child sex abuse survivors, signed a petition calling for the change.

The proposed changes will see the penalty for concealing child sex abuse increase from two years gaol to five. However, if the concealment was for any sort of benefit, the penalty will be as high as seven years.

Child abuse survivors believe the increased penalties will go a long way to reducing the number of children being abused and in turn, the incidence of long-term mental illness which many survivors have to contend with.

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions is appealing the leniency of the sentence handed to Phillip Wilson which is due to be heard next month.

Phillip Wilson Leaving Court In July After Being Sentenced For Concealing Child Sex Abuse

NSW Attorney General Orders Inquiry Into Folbigg Convictions

BY IAN CROUCH

Fifteen years after being gaoled for killing her four children, the NSW Attorney General has ordered an inquiry into the convictions of former Singleton mother, Kathleen Folbigg.

She is currently serving a 30 year sentence with a non-parole period of 25 years in Cessnock Gaol.

Kathleen Folbigg has always maintained her four children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura died over a ten year period from natural causes.

A team from the University of Newcastle Legal Centre petitioned the NSW Governor for an inquiry, arguing there was a lack of evidence showing the infants were suffocated.

Attorney General, Mark Speakman says there is sufficient cause for concern to warrant an inquiry.

"The petition appears to raise a question of the evidence that led to Ms Folbigg's convictions in 2003. That question concerns evidence as to the incidence of reported deaths of three or more infants in the same family attributable to unidentified causes," he said.

Inquiry Ordered Into Convictions Of Kathleen Folbigg. Picture Daily Telegraph