BishopAccountability.org
	Gardai Didn’t Act Despite Evidence of Sickening Sex Crimes Herald November 27, 2009 http://www.herald.ie/national-news/gardai-didnrsquot-act-despite-evidence-of-sickening-sex-crimes-1955877.html PAEDOPHILE priests escaped the wrath of the law because senior gardai believed clerics were untouchable, it emerged yesterday. A shocking report into clerical child abuse uncovered inappropriate contacts between members of the gardai and the Dublin Archdiocese. It found the connivance of gardai with the Church effectively stifled one complaint, saw that there was no investigation into another and allowed a priest to emigrate. The Commission said it would not have been aware of allegations made to gardai had it not been for information in Church files. In particular, it criticised the handling of one case by former Garda Commissioner Daniel Costigan in the mid-1960s. He resigned in 1965. It revealed he breached his duty by handing over details of a complaint against a priest known as Father Edmondus to Archbishop McQuaid without carrying out a thorough investigation. The cleric was finally jailed almost four decades later. Fr Edmondus was not investigated by gardai despite the opportunity for photographic evidence after attacks on sick children in hospital. Victim Marie Collins told the Commission: "A man like that deserves our prayers but not our protection." Ordained in 1957, he abused several young people when chaplain in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A British photography firm raised concerns over Fr Edmondus after receiving a roll of 26 images of girls aged 10 and 11 in sexual poses. Scotland Yard was called in and told Garda Commissioner Daniel Costigan but there is no evidence of a garda investigation. The inquiry found the commissioner asked Archbishop John Charles McQuaid to take the case, claiming gardai "could prove nothing". There is no record of the roll of film. The priest's excuse was curiosity and the Church's action was to get a doctor, "a good Catholic to instruct him and thus end the wonderment". "A number of very senior members of the gardai clearly regarded priests as being outside their remit," it stated. "There are some examples of gardai actually reporting complaints to the archdiocese instead of investigating them. "It is fortunate that some junior members of the force did not take the same view." The Commission said four archbishops, including Cardinal Desmond Connell, did not report their knowledge of abuse throughout the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. Their obsession with keeping allegations secret meant few complaints were ever brought to the attention of gardai until the mid-1990s. Even when Cardinal Connell handed over 17 names to officers in 1995, the Commission later found there were 28 priests with allegations against them at that time. But gardai said they were happy with the co-operation they later received from the Cardinal.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.