He had been an altar boy with a terrible secret who had faith in young priest Philip Wilson to do the right thing.
But Peter Creigh told a NSW court on Thursday that Wilson, now the Adelaide Archbishop, failed him.
A key witness in Wilson's trial for allegedly covering up sexual abuse, Mr Creigh told Newcastle Local Court how the now-dead pedophile priest James Fletcher had preyed on him in 1971 in the NSW Hunter region when he was 10 years old.
Mr Creigh, whose name had been the subject of a suppression order before he asked for it to be lifted, said he went to see Wilson at the presbytery of an East Maitland Catholic Church in early 1976 to tell him about what Fletcher had done to him five years earlier.
Wilson had only recently arrived at the parish and was well-liked after setting up the local youth group.
Having kept the secret of Fletcher's abuse for so long, Mr Creigh trusted Wilson to take action against the pedophile priest, but nothing happened.
"I thought I could trust him (Wilson)," Mr Creigh, 57, said.
"At that stage, I was 15 and the abuse was starting to concern me, what had gone on five years prior."
Mr Creigh said Wilson had a "look of horror" on his face when he told him about Fletcher's abuse.
He said he told Wilson how Fletcher claimed the abuse had been acts of punishment for not doing his job properly as an altar boy.
Mr Creigh would have to wait terrified in the room behind the altar before Fletcher would force him to strip naked and abuse him.
He said Wilson assured him the acts of punishment carried out by Fletcher were not normal and he would mention the abuse claims to the parish priest and have it looked into.
"I was hoping Father Wilson would pass it on to higher authorities," Mr Creigh said.
"I was looking for guidance, what's the next step?"
It was the first time he had told anyone about the abuse.
But when nothing had happened six months later, Mr Creigh said he went to again see Wilson, who told him the church was still looking into his abuse claims.
Mr Creigh said he never heard from Wilson again.
Defence barrister Stephen Odgers SC said Wilson did not dispute meeting Mr Creigh in 1976, but believed he had a false, reconstructed memory about discussing Fletcher's abuse.
A second former altar boy, who cannot be named, told the court he was about 11 in 1976 when he went into the confessional box to tell Wilson how Fletcher had abused him.
The witness, now aged 52, said Wilson told him the abuse claims were lies because Fletcher "was a good bloke".
He said Wilson ordered him to get out of the confessional box and say 10 Hail Marys as an act of contrition.
Fletcher was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing another boy and died of a stroke in jail in January 2006.
Wilson, 67, is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sex assault.
The trial resumes on Friday.
