Church sex abuse probe draws blank

Dearbhail McDonald

A TWO-YEAR garda inquiry into allegations that the Catholic church covered up child sex abuse has so far failed to produce incriminating evidence against senior church figures.
It had been hoped by clerical sex abuse victims that the ?God squad? ? a 20-strong specialist detective unit ? would confirm claims that the church concealed the activities of abusive priests in Dublin, Ireland?s largest archdiocese. But an internal review of the inquiry last week concluded that no damning evidence had been unearthed.

Gardai privately say their investigation has been hampered by the church?s unwillingness to give full access to its files, which cannot be removed from Archbishop?s House.

?The investigation is still ongoing, but to date there is nothing in the church?s own files to indicate a cover-up. There?s no conspiracy there,? said a source close to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The garda investigation was launched after claims were made in an RTE television documentary that priests were given access to children even after the church had received complaints of abuse from parents.

The probe, now entering its third year, has centred on allegations by victims and their parents that church authorities concealed the activities of abusive priests from civil authorities and transferred abusers to new parishes where they continued to abuse children.

The investigation is expected to be completed before the start of a ?3m state inquiry into abuse in the Dublin diocese next year.

Diocesan files released to gardai have confirmed the transfer of known and suspected abusers to new parishes. But the documents, which are released under the supervision of diocesan authorities and cannot be removed from church property, do not contain any evidence that senior figures, including Cardinal Desmond Connell, the retired archbishop of Dublin, concealed the activities of paedophile priests.

Despite Connell?s promise that gardai would be given unlimited access to diocesan files, victims fear incriminating documents have been withheld.

?Access to files won?t be a problem for the statutory inquiry,? said Andrew Madden, a campaigner for victims of sex abuse.

?Only a state inquiry into the Dublin diocese will ascertain how well Connell and other senior clerics handled complaints. It will have the powers to ensure discovery of church files. We have heard absolutely nothing from the garda inquiry in 2? years, so you have to ask whether it really achieved its objective.?

Last year, the Dublin diocese paid almost ?400,000 to a victim of Thomas Naughton, a priest who was jailed for abusing four boys. The unprecedented settlement was agreed between the church and Mervyn Rundle, who won a High Court application to access all documents on the abusing priest.

?The gardai can have access to my files any time if they are in any doubt about a cover-up,? said Rundle. ?This is why we need a state inquiry more than ever, so we can compel the church authorities to testify.?

Connell?s pledge for complete access to diocesan files was made last December after a breakthrough meeting with Marie Collins and Ken Reilly, campaigners for victims of sex abuse.

There are an estimated 450 legal actions against priests and members of religious orders in the Dublin archdiocese alone.

The screening of Cardinal Secrets in 2002, and a series of disclosures of abuse, led to unprecedented calls for Connell?s resignation in the wake of ?unspeakable abuse? and his handling of complaints.

Diarmuid Martin, Dublin?s new archbishop, has defended his predecessor. ?The person who took the clearest stance on the issue is Cardinal Connell,? he said last year. ?It is sometimes not seen that he was the one who suspended and reduced priests to a lay state very quickly after he came in, in very many of these cases.?

Earlier this year, nine Catholic bishops, including Connell and Eamon Casey, the disgraced former bishop of Galway, were cleared of claims that they had failed to act on complaints of sexual impropriety against the head of St Patrick?s College, Maynooth.

The bishops commissioned an independent report, which has yet to be published, after a priest accused them of ignoring complaints that Monsignor Michael Ledwith, the former president of the college, was harassing seminarians. The bishops denied any knowledge of the complaints.