Otago Daily Times
May 19 2004
Judge denies covering up paedophile's sexual past
NZPA
Wellington: A
former chief district court judge who helped the Catholic Church with media
inquiries relating to paedophile priest Alan Woodcock says he did not try to
cover up Woodcock's previous sexual offending.
Woodcock, a former Marist priest, on Monday pleaded guilty to 21 charges
relating to the abuse of 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at
Documents reveal the Catholic Church was aware before it appointed Woodcock to
St Patricks that he had been previously convicted of
sexually assaulting a 17-year-old youth in
When one of Woodcock's victim's, Terry Carter, went to the media in 1994, the church
consulted Judge Peter Trapski, who is reported in a
1994 church document to have urged caution in what details it disclosed.
The document, says Judge Trapski, who was chairman of
the St Patricks trust board at the time, advised the
church to place "confidential material" about Woodcock into his
employment file but within a separate envelope labelled secret.
But Judge Trapski said yesterday he was not trying to
cover up Woodcock's previous offending, merely trying to avoid breaching a
suppression order relating to the 1979 case.
"I was being faced with a report that was about to be released. I looked
at the report and thought it was too specific and too fulsome and, in
particular, it was in breach of the 1979 suppression order," he told
National Radio.
"It wasn't about downplaying anything it was saying `Yeah, face up to
these things, deal with them . . . as far as the complainant is
concerned'."
However, he said, he did not advise the school to take abuse claims relating to
Woodcock to the police, as the church had already settled with some
complainants and he believed going to the police was up to them. Woodcock could
not be found at the time.
Judge Trapski said at the time the church had two
filing systems, an open one and a secret one.
When he advised that a letter, labelled secret, be put in Woodcock's employment
file, he was trying to get rid of the secret system but still protect
confidential information from people without the the
proper authority to view it.
On Monday, Woodcock was remanded in custody to appear in Wellington District
Court for sentence on June 25.
Court documents show that while at St Patricks,
Woodcock made friends with boys, offered cigarettes and enticed them to his
bedroom, where he performed indecent acts on them. One victim
describing his sexual appetite as "voracious" and
"rampant".
After several students complained of abuse, the school advised Woodcock to get
a passport. He was later moved to Highden noviciate
in Palmerston North and then later left the country.
The church yesterday vowed it would pass all future abuse allegations directly
to police.