The most senior Catholic official in the world to be convicted of concealing child sex crimes may not survive being locked up in prison, a NSW court has heard.
Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson was last month found guilty of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by paedophile priest James Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region during the 1970s.
Imprisonment is likely to worsen Wilson's many chronic illnesses and may put him at risk of assault from fellow inmates, defence barrister Ian Temby QC told his sentencing hearing at Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday.
The 67-year-old suffers from diabetes, heart and Alzheimer's disease and depression, conditions which would further deteriorate behind bars and "may even threaten his survival", he said.
Instead, Wilson's legal team urged for a good behaviour bond for the offence that carries a maximum two-year jail term.
Mr Temby noted Wilson was the first Australian Catholic bishop to introduce police checks of all clergymen, a child protection council bringing in experts from outside the church and an audit system of parishes to ensure compliance.
"The offender is not just a man... who has no prior convictions but is, in fact, a man of prior positive good character with particular reference to the general field of prevention of child sexual abuse," he said.
Wilson stood aside from the Adelaide archdiocese following the court's decision in May and said if it became necessary for him to resign, he would do so.
Peter Creigh and another altar boy told the then assistant priest in 1976 that Fletcher had repeatedly abused them, but the clergyman did nothing.
Archbishop Philip Wilson leaves the Newcastle Local Court in Newcastle, Tuesday, May 22, 2018. Source: AAP
The key witness in the landmark trial said he trusted Wilson would take action after being told of the abuse which occurred when Mr Creigh was 10 years old in 1971.
Fletcher was found guilty in December 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse. He died in jail of a stroke in January 2006.
Magistrate Robert Stone rejected claims by Wilson, who is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's, that he could not remember the children's allegations.
Archbishop Wilson will be sentenced on July 3.
