By Karon Kelly
Shields Gazette
May 13, 2008
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Priest-gets-four-years-for.4077707.jp
A FORMER Catholic priest who carried out a five-year campaign of child abuse was today jailed for four years.
Father John Corrigan sexually abused three altar boys and a girl at his church in Gateshead during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His female victim told of her ordeal when it happened, and one of the others spent the early 1980s trying to convince the authorities what had happened to him.
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| Jailed ... shamed Corrigan. |
But it was only 40 years later, when Corrigan admitted what he had done,
that his victims have finally received justice.
At Newcastle Crown Court this afternoon, Judge David Hodson jailed Corrigan for four years.
He told him: "By virtue of your priesthood you were in an especially privileged position.
"You were regarded by your parishoners as a person with whom the safety and innocence of the children in your charge would be safe.
"Over a period of about five years you breached that trust in the grossest way.
"A striking feature of these offences is you chose either the sancitity of the sacristy or the safety of the vestry to commit these offences, either when altar boys or the helpful teenage girl was alone, when no one was about and you believed your position was unassailable.
"You thought no one would complain, and even if they did their word would not be believed as against yours.
"When complaints were later made those thoughts, which I'm sure you must
have had, were in fact proved right. Both the church and the police did nothing.
"But you will not be punished for the failings of others, you will be
sentenced for what you did."
After the hearing, Father Dennis Tindall, diocesan safeguarding
co-ordinator of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, said he has worked
closely with some of the victims and while the sentence will not take away their pain, it will help them feel "acknowleged".
He added: "A priest is given privileged access to the lives of a number of people. It is not earned, it is given freely.
"For anyone to use that privilege in order to carry out actions which are the polar opposite of everything the church stands for is a serious breach of trust and a grave crime.
"We need to acknowledge things weren't always done correctly on the past.
"When information was shared it was often not passed on to the people who could do something about it.
"But since 1994 we have had thorough proceedures in place, and always work now in tandem with the police and statutory agencies to make sure the requirements of the law are honoured and that justice is done."
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