Irish priest accused of paedophilia

Friday May 13th 2005

Patrick Colleary's case was only up for mention before Mr Justice O'Sullivan yesterday, while the Chief State Solicitor's Office waited for an explanation from the US Department of Justice.

Just last month, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio had 700 inmates, clad just in pink underwear, pink handcuffs and pink flip-flops, move from old jails to new ones in Phoenix.

The march raised concerns with the Irish government that Colleary, former associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale, Arizona, would be mistreated if he were held in a Maricopa County jail before his trial.

Colleary (55), from Sligo, spent a month in jail in Maricopa County under Sheriff Arpaio's controversial administration after he was arrested on December 4, 2002, on a grand jury warrant accusing him of molesting Chandler resident Mark Kennedy in 1979. The case was dismissed under the statute of limitations.

Colleary was long gone to Ireland when he was indicted again on May 28, 2003, on two fresh counts of sexual conduct with a minor, a teenage boy, and one count of attempted sexual conduct with a minor.

He denies the charges and has fought extradition on several grounds, including his assertion that Maricopa County jails are inhumane.

Judgment was due in his case on April 22, but the photograph of the marching prisoners in a tabloid newspaper has brought it to a halt. In a letter sent on Tuesday, Charles Wallace of the Chief State Solicitor's Dublin office has asked for the situation to be clarified.

Mr Wallace said he was particularly concerned by quotes from Sheriff Arpaio which accompanied the newspaper pictures.

The Sheriff was reported to say: "I put them on the streets so everybody could see them . . . if a kid asks his mother what was going on, she could tell him this is what happens to people who break the law. I view it as another deterrent to fight crime."

Mr Wallace wanted to know why Arpaio's comments contradicted sworn claims by county prosecutors that inmates were treated humanely, were not degraded and their rights were not violated.

The official explanation for the underwear was so prisoners could not smuggle contraband. The colour was chosen so it would not be stolen.

Mr Wallace, principal solicitor in the State's justice and crime section, asked the US Justice Department's senior trial attorney Tressa Borland to confirm the conditions under which Patrick Colleary would be kept should he be extradited to the US.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has said he will ask the federal government to hold Colleary pending trial rather than Sheriff Arpaio.

His chief assistant, Sally Wolfgang Wells, said: "The extradition of Patrick Colleary remains a high priority of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The crimes for which Mr Colleary stands accused, involving the sexual abuse of children, are reprehensible and must be addressed. We firmly believe our community should not suffer because of this ill-advised act by the Sheriff's Office."

Sheriff Arpaio claims he was being made the 'sacrificial lamb' over the issue.

"If the guy doesn't want to come to my hotel, he can go to the country club federal prison," he said.

The Sheriff said Colleary would be segregated and protected if he were in county jail, but he would still be given standard jail meals and made to wear pink underwear and a striped jail uniform.

"I'm not going to change any of my policies," he said.

The extradition case is expected back before the High Court later this year.

Helen Bruce and
Mick McCaffrey

? Irish Independent