Despite hearing admissions by the accused priests and receiving multiple complaints from teachers, parents and children, Cotter did not report anything to police.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that Cotter had significant knowledge of sex crimes committed by priests in his diocese.
In 1996, NSW Police attempted to charge Cotter with concealing a crime but the Director of Public Prosecutions considered him too old to stand trial.
[5][6] Despite multiple complaints and Ryan and McAlinden's own admissions of their abuse of children directly to Cotter,[7] he did not report the crimes to police.
During the execution of search warrants in Newcastle, police discovered documents indicating Cotter had significant knowledge of Ryan's sexual abuse of children as early as 1974 and 1975.
Detective Senior Constable Troy Grant led the investigation and interviewed Cotter and Bishop Leo Clarke.
[16] On 11 October 1997, Cotter attempted to get local journalist Jeff Corbet and The Newcastle Herald newspaper to stop running stories on Ryan.
[21] The publicity generated by the reports in The Newcastle Herald led hundreds more victims to come forward, leading to the convictions of more priests from the diocese.