Priest abuse report to be published

Details of how jailed paedophile priest Tony Walsh was allowed to prey on young victims for years will be published next week.

Support groups warned publication of the previously censored chapter of the Murphy Report on the defrocked priest will further damage Church hierarchy and expose failures of its leaders.

The High Court lifted an order blocking the release of Chapter 19 of the Dublin Archdiocese inquiry, which last year revealed decades of abuse was ignored because Catholic clerics were effectively granted police immunity.

Walsh was jailed last week for 16 years for 17 counts of sexual abuse on three young boys, including buggery.

Clerical abuse support group One in Four said Chapter 19 is likely to show many children were sexually abused by the known paedophile priest because the archdiocese failed to act.

Maeve Lewis, group executive director, said it will also reveal further evidence of the culture of secrecy and cover-up which existed in the Dublin Archdiocese before the appointment of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

She said: "Hundreds of people who were abused as children in Dublin and their families will be distressed by the contents of this chapter.

"Unfortunately the chapter is likely to be published just before Christmas, a particularly difficult time for survivors of sexual abuse anyway. We urge anybody who is affected to reach out for support to One in Four."

The Department of Justice said the report is expected to be published on Monday at the earliest.

Walsh, 57, was previously jailed for sexually abusing six other boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

SIC: BT/UK