The Roman Catholic Church is again embroiled in claims of a cover-up over its handling of child sexual assault allegations involving priests.
The ABC's Four Corners program has revealed the church failed to pass on admissions by a priest to police.
The program detailed several cases in which priests were merely moved on when the church was made aware of sexual abuse claims against them.
Four Corners obtained documents showing a New South Wales priest, from the parishes of Moree and later Parramatta, who is accused of abusing young boys, made clear admissions during a meeting with three senior priests, but they never referred the matter to police.
Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, has defended the church's handling of sexual abuse cases.
He says the priest never owned up to the claims during a meeting he was called to.
"The file note of that meeting does not show he made any admission and that is the recollection of the three priests who were actually at that," he said.
But Four Corners has obtained a report written by one of those present in the meeting, Father Wayne Peters, which clearly states that the accused priest did make admissions of criminal sexual assault.
Peter Jurd is the brother of one of the priest's victims - who later committed suicide.
He says the priest should have been held responsible.
"It would have been no different if he'd just taken a gun and shot him ... it just took longer," he said.
Mr Jurd says the crimes of his brother's abuser were brushed under the carpet.
"He's still out there ... he's never been brought to justice," he said.