PRIEST TELLS HOW FALSE SEX CRIME RUINED HIS LIFE
Added on June 28, 2007
CRIME: Accuser Jailed for Four Years
by Charlie Mallon, Evening Herald (Dublin), 27 June 2007]
[This took up a quarter of page 10 of the Evening Herald today. For comparison purposes, the WHOLE of page 11 was given over to an article on Paris Hilton!]
A priest falsely accused of assaulting a child told a court today that he would have preferred to have been shot in the head than for him and his family to have endured the pangs of anxiety and the profound sufferings of the past four years.
The Dublin priest, who cannot be named, publicly forgave his accuser, 34 year old Paul Anderson, from Crumlin Park, Crumlin, just before he was sentenced to four years in jail for making a false complaint, at the Central Criminal Court.
The priest almost broke down when he thanked the professionalism of the gardai, Detective Sergeant Martin Mooney and Detective Garda Brian Kavanagh, who "gave me back my very life".
He dedicated "the considerable trauma and suffering" to those genuine victims of the atrocity of abuse.
"I hope that what transpired in this case will not stop any genuine victim from coming forward to seek justice and redress for such a crime.The safety of children has always been for me and must always be of paramount importance."
In a victim impact statement read to the court he described how, when the allegation was made, he was instantly and publicly suspended from ministry under church guidelines.
"Without any due process, my diocese - in a 'Guantanamo Bay-type' reaction - had me stand aside from my work as a priest. I had to leave my house and home and stay with family and friends, and I lost almost a year out of my pastoral work."
The court also heard that Anderson had made a number of suicide attempts, one on the eve of his trial back in June 2006 when he took a cocktail of pills. He was now dependent on Valium.