GARDAÍ are set to interview an elderly priest after receiving a number of allegations that he sexually abused young girls.A senior garda spokesman confirmed yesterday that the complaints were made by several women, who allege that they were assaulted by the priest when they were younger.
The incidents are said to date back to the 1970s and occurred when the priest was working in a parish in Co Cork. The garda spokesman said that the priest has retired, but is still living in the county. Several of the victims have already been spoken to, while one has yet to be fully interviewed.
“We expect to be speaking to the priest at length and very shortly,” the garda spokesman said. The investigation will be carried out by detectives from the Cork North Garda Division, who have also been carrying out an intensive probe into allegations that another man living in the region sexually abused 10 girls, aged six to 11.
Gardaí had sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The alleged paedophile was questioned about what gardaí described as “serious sexual assaults” on girls who he had “carefully groomed” over a period stretching from the mid-1990s to early 2000.
The man was a neighbour of many of the girls and was close to the families of several of the victims, who at the time didn’t suspect what he was doing.
A complaint was made earlier this year by a woman in her 20s who handed gardaí in Fermoy a list of a number of other young women who she believed were also victims.
After interviewing the woman, senior gardaí put a team of detectives on the case and they proceeded to talk to the other victims, all of whom were said to have given similar stories.
A garda spokesman said that it appeared to be the most serious case of child sexual abuse investigated in the region.
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