Kiefel CJ
Bell J
Gageler J
Keane J
Nettle J
Gordon J
Edelman J
21.
Nathan was asked if he ever saw the applicant "pause at the steps at the front entrance and not process out with you" and he said:
"I've got memories of both. I think there may have been times where he um, stayed at the front of the steps and spoke to the congregation, and there's also times that I remember walking all the way around."
Nathan was asked where the applicant would be at the time of the procession and he explained "so if he was in front of us, it was - by the time we go to that circular pool and then I wouldn't see him after that. Wouldn't really pay attention to where he was after that." The reference to the circular pool, it appears, was to a pool in the Cathedral's garden, which the procession passed by as it made its way back to the metal gate at the rear of the Cathedral.
Luciano Parissi was a member of the choir between 1991 and 2001. Parissi was not able to say where the applicant was during the external procession following Sunday solemn Mass because "[h]e'd always be behind me. I would never really be looking back." Parissi recalled that the applicant remained with the procession and that usually the choir would stop and wait for him to enter the back of the Cathedral first. Parissi did not have any specific recollection of Sunday solemn Masses in the second half of 1996. Parissi's membership of the choir spanned the administration of three archbishops. In cross-examination he was asked if it was possible that it was not the applicant for whom the choir stopped at the end of the external procession. He said that to the best of his recollection there "would be times when that would happen with [the applicant] … I can't recall definitively because I was there for a while, and sometimes those do blur into different priests and archbishops, yes."
Andrew La Greca was aged 13 years in 1996. He had commenced singing with the choir in 1993. He had no recall of Masses or processions in December 1996. His recollection was that it was more common for the processions to proceed internally. He understood that whether the procession was external or internal depended upon the identity of the celebrant. Archbishop Little had a preference for external processions. External processions were also frequent when the applicant was the celebrant. La Greca recalled that as the external procession rounded the corner of the Cathedral sometimes the applicant "would just wait and speak to the congregation" and "[o]ther times he might have just kept on walking with us. I can't recall exactly."
