BishopAccountability.org
	Irish Priest Subject of US Sex Lawsuits By Stephen Rogers One in Four [Ireland] February 15, 2007 http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2007/patrickokeeffe/ AN Irish priest who allegedly sexually abused at least three women in the United States is the subject of the first of 155 lawsuits which are being taken against two US diocese and which starts this month. Monsignor Patrick O'Keeffe returned to Ireland in 2002, just days before a warrant was issued for his arrest over child sex abuse charges. At that point he was wanted on 15 charges over claims that he repeatedly forced a teenager to engage in oral sex when he was serving in a parish near Los Angeles more than 30 years ago. Those charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. He also faces accusations of sexual abuse from three other women, including allegations he fondled a 14-year-old girl at a school in 1990. The 70-year-old Kilkenny native spent 35 years working in churches in the US. He was dismissed from all parish duties in 1994 after San Bernardino Diocese settled a lawsuit brought against him by a woman who had accused him of sexual misconduct. It is understood Monsignor O'Keeffe submitted a video-taped deposition with lawyers and this could be played to the jury in the civil case. However, he is not expected to attend the trial. An alleged Colorado victim, Nicki Rister, who claims she was repeatedly molested by the priest over a six-month period in the early 1970s has described him as a 'coward' who she wants brought back to the US to face charges. "He made it very difficult to tell anyone. He was such a personable man and would often tell me how much he loved me," she said after his departure to Ireland in 2002. "It is very irritating to me that he is free as long as he is in Ireland because he will never leave there." Hers is the first of the 155 cases being brought against the San Diego and San Bernardino Diocese. O'Keeffe is one of a handful of the 60 priests and ex-priests accused in the San Diego lawsuits who is still alive. They are being brought as a result of new state legislation which created a window for those claiming to have been molested as children to sue the Catholic Church decades later.
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