IRELAND
Times
By Times Online and PA News
The Irish diocese of Ferns was condemned as among the worst in the world for child abuse by priests in a scathing report out this afternoon.
The 271-page Ferns Inquiry Report describes how some 21 Catholic priests savagely sexually assaulted young boys and girls in parishes across Co Wexford in Ireland during the past 40 years.
A two-year investigation uncovered 100 complaints of abuse, with one priest responsible for 26 assaults.
The report revealed that Garda investigations were wholly inadequate. Gardai were blamed for not keeping records of informal complaints of abuse, including an allegation that 10 children were molested at the altar in the parish church of Monageer.
Retired Supreme Court Judge Frank Murphy, who headed the probe, said that bishops in the Diocese of Ferns had failed to take even basic precautions to protect children.