October 24, 2005

Ferns report details Garda complicity in sex abuse whitewash

IRELAND
Sunday Independent

JIM CUSACK

DETAILS of how a senior garda destroyed interview notes from children sexually abused in the Ferns diocese are included in the judicial report being presented to Government prior to its publication this week.

Chief Superintendent Jim Doyle was awarded by the Vatican after he squashed a file that should have led to the prosecution of a priest for the abuse of children while they were preparing for their confirmations at Monageer parish in April 1988. Doyle, who died two years ago, received the bene merenti only given to people who have carried out significant services to the Church, after the file disappeared.

The Monageer episode is at the centre of the inquiry into sexual abuse in the Ferns diocese, though the priest is only one of 24 abusers identified in the report.

Chief Superintendent Doyle intervened personally in the case of Fr Jim Grennan, a senior Parish Priest in the diocese who made girls from his confirmation class sexually fondle him at the altar of his church.

Posted by kshaw at October 24, 2005 08:40 AM