A newly released section of the Murphy report has detailed for the
first time how five of the country's most notorious clerical child
abusers forged close links with one another as they raped and molested
their victims.
The revelation, which prominent abuse
survivor Andrew Madden said "sends a chill down the spine", has prompted
fresh concerns about the existence of a paedophile ring within the
Dublin archdiocese at the time.
The five priests involved
are the Ballyfermot-based "singing priest" Fr Tony Walsh, who was the
subject of chapter 19 of the report published last Friday, Fr Bill
Carney, Fr Noel Reynolds, Fr Francis McCarthy and Fr Patrick Maguire.
A
previously unpublished section of the main Murphy commission report,
which along with the whole of chapter 19 was held back for legal reasons
until last week, outlines how Walsh used a room provided to him by Fr
Noel Reynolds in Kilmore to abuse his victims after Reynolds gave him a
key.
It then goes on to outline how Walsh took over
responsibility for leading altar boy trips to Clonliffe College from two
other priests who would subsequently be convicted of child abuse, Fr
Bill Carney and Fr Francis McCarthy.
These two men, the report notes,
brought children on holidays and shared accommodation with two separate
complainants.
"A boy who was initially abused by Fr McCarthy was
subsequently abused by Fr Carney," it states.
Finally, the
section notes how Carney abused children at swimming pools and was
"sometimes accompanied to swimming pools" by a fifth child abuser named
in the report, Fr Patrick Maguire.
The publication of the
second half of section 1.77 of the report last week, which contains the
references to Walsh's links with the other priests, means for the first
time the extent of the interaction between all five abusers, as
established by judge Yvonne Murphy and her team, has now become clear.
Madden
said the revelation added "another dimension" to what we have
previously known.
"The only thing that is missing is a record of the
private conversations between these men," he told the Sunday Tribune.
"Paedophile rings are informal by nature. While somebody who is
determined to abuse children will do so regardless, if there are people
there who know the other will not say anything, then it facilitates the
sexual abuse of children. It is certainly no coincidence that these
five men appear together in the report and knew each other."
The
Murphy report published last year found "no direct evidence" of a
paedophile ring. However, it found "worrying connections" between a
number of priests, although up until now the suppression of the
references to Tony Walsh meant the extent of these links was unclear.
Meanwhile,
auxiliary Dublin bishop Eamonn Walsh, whose offer of resignation was
refused by the pope earlier this year, yesterday refused to comment on
chapter 19 of the report.
While the chapter noted that he suggested to
his fellow bishops that the civil authorities should be informed about
Tony Walsh's "homosexual orientation", neither he nor any other bishop
did this at the time.
SIC: ST/IE