Gardaí and successive archbishops and bishops in Dublin have been
harshly criticised in a just-released chapter of the Murphy Report for
conniving to stop a serial paedophile from being brought to justice. The Commission of Investigation said “connivance in stifling a complaint and failing to investigate another” by gardaí was shocking and described an “inappropriate relationship” between gardaí and the Catholic Church.
At least 21 complaints were made against Fr Patrick McCabe up to 1995. He was repeatedly sent to treatment centres in England and Mexico. In the second he was diagnosed as a paedophile. However, he was repeatedly released back into parishes without any monitoring.
For up to 20 years, Fr McCabe repeatedly avoided any kind of supervision in numerous Dublin dioceses, as he told them he had the support of a spiritual director and psychiatrist. None of this was checked out by Church officials.
Fr McCabe’s victims included a boy who was just six years old.
He was also found to have abused at least eight children in Artane between 1979 and 1981.
According to the Murphy Commission, the McCabe chapter “encapsulated everything that was wrong about handling of child sexual abuse” in Dublin.
Archbishop Ryan was accused of protecting Fr McCabe to an extraordinary extent, even though he had understanding of the effects of abuse and knowledge of complaints.