A CATHOLIC priest, second in charge of the Maitland/Newcastle diocese for about seven years until 2005, said on Thursday he had no recollection of the diocese buying a one-way ticket to Papua New Guinea for pedophile priest, Denis McAlinden. In evidence to a special NSW commission of inquiry, the Hunter Valley's former vicar general and now Newcastle suburban parish priest, Fr Bill Burston, attributed a "substantial" degree of his memory loss to general anesthetic he said he had received for ten surgical operations between 2004 and last year. When asked by a barrister assisting the commission, David Kell, if he was aware of another diocese-funded one-way ticket for Fr McAlinden to go to England, Fr Burston said "no." Would such tickets have been unusual, Mr Kell asked. "They would be," Fr Burston answered. Earlier in July the inquiry heard that in October 1976 McAlinden received permission to work in the PNG diocese of Kerema and the Maitland Central Clergy Fund paid his one-way travel ticket. The inquiry, being heard by commissioner Margaret Cunneen in Newcastle Supreme Court, is looking at how church leaders and police handled child sexual abuse allegations against Fr McAlinden and another priest, James Fletcher. Fr Burston said he believed allegations about Fr McAlinden were the first he had heard involving any Hunter Valley priests and he may have been first told around 1996 but he could not remember who told him. One of the few things he could remember was that Catholic church leaders did not tell police about Fr McAlinden because: "My understanding was that the victims did not want to go to the police." Fr Burston's memory was extremely limited to nonexistent on details of child sexual abuse allegations involving Hunter Valley Catholic priests even though Mr Kell showed him documents dating back to 1996 and asked him of conversations other witnesses said took place through the years. Fr Burston admitted that in the late 1990s he knew of "grave" allegations against Fr McAlinden. Bishop Michael Malone had told him there was evidence supporting the allegations, Fr McAlinden had made admissions to another senior priest, and he had heard that people involved in the allegations had threatened legal action and going to police. Repeatedly though, Fr Burston said he had no memory of many things and rejected Mr Kell's suggestions that he was being "highly selective" and that it was "inconceivable" he could not recall details of things involving obviously inappropriate behaviour. The hearing continues on Friday.