Friday, December 02, 2011

Ban on full publication of Murphy report upheld

The High Court has continued a ban on the publication of a chapter of the Dublin Catholic Archdiocese abuse report.

Last Tuesday Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said that he was extending an order restraining publication of chapter 20 of the report.

Mr Justice Gilligan said that following discussions with all the relevant parties it was agreed that the court should keep in place an order of November 2009 to withhold publication of chapter 20, pending the outcome of criminal proceedings relating to a person named in that chapter of the report complied by Circuit Court Judge Yvonne Murphy.

The Judge also adjourned the matter to July of next year.

The Murphy report investigated how clerical child sex abuse allegations involving 46 priests in Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese were handled by church and State authorities between 1975 and 2004.

Chapters 20 and 19 of the report were withheld when it was published on November 26, 2009, pending the outcome of proceedings involving Former priest Tony Walsh and the other man.

In December 2010 Mr Justice Gilligan ruled that the chapter 19 of the report, which related to Walsh, could be published following Walsh's conviction last year on 17 counts of sexual abuse.

Walsh was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment, with four suspended, on 17 counts of sexual abuse, including five counts of buggery on one boy.