THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) declined to prosecute
Bishop John Magee because a 1997 law under which gardai wanted him
charged was "not broad enough" to deal with the cleric's alleged
concealment.
Legal sources say the DPP believed that any
prosecution was likely to be challenged and immediately thrown out of
court because the 'proofs' -- the evidence required to meet the charge
-- could not be met.
It could not be proved that Dr Magee made a
financial gain from withholding information from the authorities about a
paedophile priest.
The evidence he gave to the authorities stood in
stark contrast to a version about the priest that he supplied to the
Vatican.
Records sent to the Vatican stated that Fr Brendan Wrixon
immediately admitted sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy during a 2005
interview with Dr Magee.
However, diocesan records showed that Fr
Wrixon denied sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy.
The discovery in
2009 of the conflicting versions prompted gardai to recommend to the
DPP that Dr Magee be prosecuted for withholding information that was of
"material assistance" in securing the prosecution or conviction of an
offender.
But the possibility of charging Dr Magee under the
Criminal Law Act 1997 foundered because it could not be proved that
there was 'consideration', otherwise known as financial gain, on the
bishop's behalf.
Consideration is a stipulation in section 8 of
the 1997 act which replaced a broader law -- abolished in the same year
-- which made failure to report a crime, a crime itself.
The axing
of the maligned misprision of felony law deprived prosecutors of the
opportunity to prosecute many senior church figures.
Indecency
Fr
Wrixon pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last November to
three counts of gross indecency against a 16-year-old youth between
October 16, 1982, and February 15, 1983.
Fr Wrixon (75), the only
one of 19 priests in the Cloyne Report to have been convicted, was given
an 18-month suspended sentence.
Gardai
and legal experts are anticipating a wave of fresh reporting by the
church and others ahead of mandatory reporting laws which are at the
heart of the Government's legislative response to the fallout of the
Cloyne Report.