Dominion Post
May 19 2004

Judge defends advice over paedophile priest

Former chief district court judge Peter Trapski yesterday defended his role with the Catholic Church in relation to its handling of publicity about paedophile priest Alan Woodcock in the 1990s.

When one of the victims went to the media in 1994, the church turned to Judge Trapski for advice. He had helped to set up its abuse protocol and was at the time chairman of St Patrick's College in Silverstream. Woodcock had abused several boys at St Patrick's 12 years earlier.

Judge Trapski said he had tried to encourage the church to be more open about sexual offending by its priests and brothers, instead of "sweeping things under the carpet" as parts of the church had done in the past.

Documents show the church knew Woodcock had a conviction for sexual offending in 1979 against a 17-year-old youth, before it appointed him to St Patrick's. He had been granted name suppression.

When media inquiries were made about Woodcock, Judge Trapski urged caution so that the suppression order would not be breached. He also suggested that "confidential material" about Woodcock be placed in his employment file in a separate envelope marked confidential. He said yesterday this advice was to ensure that all the material was together so that it could be accessed, but that "sensitive" material would not be open to just anyone.

Judge Trapski said he was aware in 1994 of complaints made in 1982 by Silverstream boys about Woodcock's abuse but he advised the church to be careful about saying anything about them as Woodcock could not be found and "we could not put stuff into the media without his knowledge" or giving him the opportunity to defend the claims.

Though attitudes had now changed, Judge Trapski said that at the time he did not believe it was up to the church to contact the police about the abuse claims. "I didn't think it was the church's responsibility or even right to go to the police. I think it is a matter for the victims to go to the police."