FORMER PRIEST and convicted child abuser Bill Carney is reported to
be back in Spain after a local paper in Gloucestershire reported his
presence there last Friday.
The
Gloucestershire Echo said Carney (61) had moved into a
semi-detached property in Northleach, near Cheltenham in the Cotswolds,
home of his former wife, Joan Clayton (70).
The paper had been
contacted by a man who said Carney was living near a local playground
and wondered whether his two young children would be able to use it
again. It is believed Carney left Northleach on Saturday and is now in
Benidorm.
Ordained in 1974 for the Dublin archdiocese, he served
as a priest until 1989 and was laicised in 1992 following a canon law
trial.
The Murphy commission reported that it was aware of
suspicions or complaints against him involving 32 known individuals but
that it was also aware “that he abused many more children”.
In 1983, he
pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault. The Probabation Act
was applied.
The Murphy report described him as “one of the most
serious serial abusers investigated by the commission” and described the
Catholic Church’s handling of his case as “nothing short of
catastrophic”.
Following publication of the Murphy report in
November 2009, BBC journalist Olenka Frenkiel reported that Carney was
in Lanzarote, where he had been living for a year with wife Joan.
On
hearing of the report findings, she returned to their home in Scotland
and began divorce proceedings.
Last night, her son Paul told The Irish
Times that as part of the divorce settlement last year Carney had been
awarded £100,000 (€114,600).
He said his mother’s marriage to
Carney lasted about 10 years and that he had turned up on her doorstep
two weeks ago claiming he was getting treatment for heart problems and
asked could he stay for a time.
Describing his mother as “a nice,
quiet, gullible old lady”, he said she relented as she felt sorry for
Carney.
Now “she doesn’t want anything to do with him”, he said.