ARCHBISHOP DERMOT Ryan handled complaints badly, never reported knowledge of abuse to the Garda and failed to properly investigate complaints against at least six priests, the report states.The report says Dr Ryan, who was archbishop of Dublin from 1972 until his death in 1985, failed to properly investigate complaints made against Fr James McNamee, Fr Patrick Maguire, Fr Bill Carney and three other priests who are not named.
The report accuses Dr Ryan of having a deliberate policy of ensuring that knowledge of problems was as restricted as possible. As problems emerged, he got different people to deal with them, and this resulted in a "disastrous lack of co-ordination".
It dismisses the notion that Dr Ryan or any of the other three archbishops during the period 1975-2004 could have been ignorant of the problem of child sexual abuse by clerics.
Dr Ryan was well educated and held a high-ranking academic post in UCD.
In 1981, he showed a clear understanding of the recidivist nature of child sexual abusers and the effects of such abuse on children when he referred a priest for treatment to Britain.
The report also notes that during his tenure, the archdiocese first made inquiries about insurance cover for compensation claims in the mid-1980s and this was put in place in 1987. Dr Ryan also refused to deal with anonymous complaints.
The report says he should have taken immediate action when he discovered there had been many "incidents" in a swimming pool in the back garden of Fr McNamee's house in Crumlin, Dublin.
He was wrong to have allowed Fr McNamee to stay another 15 months in his Crumlin parish and he compounded the wrong by allowing the priest to transfer to a convent, where he again had access to young altar boys.
Dr Ryan was also "negligent" in his dealing with Fr Maguire, a serial child sex abuser.
The report also accuses Dr Ryan of protecting another, unnamed priest facing abuse complaints "to an extraordinary extent".
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