Blackbutt South Beresfield Blackbutt North Boolaroo-Warners Bay Booragul Branxton Cessnock Denman Dungog East Lake Macquarie East Maitland Forster Tuncurry Gloucester Gresford Krambach Kurri Kurri Lochinvar MacKillop (Charlestown, Gateshead & Redhead) Maitland Mayfield Mayfield West Merriwa Morisset Morpeth Murrurundi Muswellbrook Myall Coast Nelson Bay Newcastle St Benedict (includes Cathedral) Raymond Terrace Rutherford Scone Singleton Stockton Sugarloaf Taree Toronto Wallsend-Shortland Wingham Child sexual abuse in the diocese The diocese has been referred to as the "epicentre of Catholic clerical sexual abuse in Australia" due to a number of abusive priests and religious brothers with extensive abuse records being jailed since 1997. Archbishop Philip Wilson In March 2015, NSW Police charged Archbishop Philip Wilson, then the Archbishop of Adelaide, of "concealing a serious offence regarding child sexual abuse in the Hunter region in 1978" when he was a priest in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese. Wilson took leave and issued a statement saying he would "vigorously defend my innocence through the judicial system". Wilson's lawyer attempted to prevent the trial going ahead on medical grounds but this was refused. On 22 May 2018, Wilson was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended, which Wilson would serve under home detention. The Pope accepted Wilson's resignation on 30 July 2018. As an archbishop, Wilson was the most senior Catholic cleric in Australia to be convicted of not disclosing abuse by another priest to the police. On 6 December 2018, Wilson was acquitted of all charges. In September 2021, following Wilson's successful appeal, the fourth volume of the 2014 Special Commission of Inquiry into allegations of cover-up of sexual abuse claims in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle found that Archbishop Wilson was an "unsatisfactory and unimpressive witness" and that he gave evidence the commissioners considered untruthful, self-serving and implausible. They found that Wilson had knowledge of sexual abuse of children committed by Father James Fletcher and Father Denis McAlinden. Wilson died on 17 January 2021. Brother Christopher Wade In June 2017, former Marist Brothers Hamilton headmaster Brother Christopher Wade was found guilty of child sex offences against two former students. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. On his release, Wade was charged with concealment offences and faced Sydney District Court on 28 February 2020. He pleaded guilty on two counts of failing to provide information to police during a 2014 child sex abuse investigation into Brother Romuald Cable and Brother Dominic O'Sullivan. Wade was sentenced to