A man who was raped by a priest 45 years ago when he was only four has finally been given the name of the abuser.
Nearly three years after gardaí told Jonathan Randall they had identified the priest, who is now dead, he has been provided with a name — after taking legal action.
The Chief State Solicitor’s office has told Mr Randall’s lawyer that the man identified as having raped him during a holiday in Bettystown, Co Meath, was Joseph Michael Steele.
The Belfast-born priest was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in 1996 for “systematically” abusing 10 children over the course of 14 years in the North.
Steele also pleaded guilty in 2012 to sexually abusing two other children, a girl and a boy, between 1967 and 1983 in the North. However, sentencing was adjourned in May 2012 after a psychiatrist raised concerns about his mental health.
He died on November 17 that year, aged 72, as a “retired Catholic priest” living in Terenure, Dublin 12, according to information released to Mr Randall’s legal representative, solicitor and senior counsel Stuart Gilhooly, of HJ Ward LLP.
In 2019, Mr Randall went to gardaí over the abuse he had suffered as a child, and detectives later identified Steele as the suspect.
Mr Randall took An Garda Síochána to court to try to learn his name after a request to the DPP was unsuccessful. Following a hearing as part of the legal action, the Chief State Solicitor’s office named Steele.
“I shouldn’t have had to go through what I did for three years to find out this man’s identity, especially considering he’s dead. It has given me some closure to finally have a name,” Mr Randall said.
“It’s a major failure of the State to treat a survivor in this way. What kind of a precedence does it set for people coming forward in future? I’m sure I’m not the only person who was too young to be able recognise or identify what happened to me, and by whom, by evil men like him.”
Mr Randall had suppressed the memory until 2018. In June 2019, he walked into a south Dublin garda station and gave a detailed statement. His complaint was transferred to Co Meath, and in October 2021 he was told gardaí were confident they had identified his abuser.
They were unable to provide him with a name, but told him there was a lot of material about the suspect online as he was well known and his crimes had led to a political fallout and involved extradition requests.
This led Mr Randall to believe it was paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, who, like Steele, was extradited from the Republic to the North to face sex abuse charges.
Through his legal representative, Mr Randall demanded that the DPP release his abuser’s name. This was declined, leading to his legal action.
“I shouldn’t have had to wait for three years. My solicitor will now seek the full garda file,” he said. “I’ve been failed twice, as a child and now as an adult. There needs to be reform of the system.”
Mr Randall said his life was upended after he was led by another child to the priest, who raped him.
He has had to leave the workforce after struggling with his memories of the attack, has been diagnosed with PTSD and is on disability benefit.
“It’s the State’s fault that I’ve been left too angry to work right now. I have a degree and I think I could be advantageous in the workplace, but not right now,” he said.
Mr Randall confirmed he intends to take a legal action against the religious order Steele was attached to.
In August 1979, the Randall family took a holiday cottage in Bettystown. Mr Randall was with his mother and baby sister, and his father was back and forth working in Dublin.
“I was befriended by an older boy. He would take me out to play on the beach,” he said. “On the second or third day, he took me around outside the other cottages, pointed to one of them and told me that the man in there ‘did things to little boys’ and that I would be scared if I ever went in there. After taking me out for a couple of days, he then led me to that cottage.
“I remember him leading me through the door, telling me someone wanted to see me and had chosen me. The person waiting in that cottage was a middle-aged man looking dishevelled and I was already afraid from what the boy had warned me about him.
“The man told me not to be noisy, that no one would hear because my father had gone away and my mother would not be able to hear me anyway. The boy told me that I would not like what was going to happen, but that it was ‘my turn’ and that he had ‘had to do this lots of times’.”
Four-year-old Jonathan was then held down and raped.
He managed to wipe the abuse from his memory, but he believes it has haunted and negatively affected the rest of his life.