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	Victim Still Longs to Confront Abuser By John Manning Fingal Independent December 2, 2009 http://www.fingal-independent.ie/news/victim-still-longs-to-confront-abuser-1960021.html A SWORDS victim of a paedophile priest exposed in the Murphy Report says that seven years after the priest's death he still longs to confront him and ask him why he abused children under his care. Bernard from Swords was one of at least 21 victims of Fr James McNamee who was a serial abuser of young boys while serving in the dioceses of Crumlin in the mid 1970s. Between the ages of six and 10, Bernard was one of the boys from Crumlin and Walkinstown that Fr McNamee abused in a swimming pool at his house in the diocese. 'I was one of the chosen few,' Bernard told the Fingal Independent wryly. 'It is amazing to think now that other boys who were not given access to the pool were jealous of us - how lucky they are.' Bernard said: 'I remember swimming around in the nude and being touched by him, washed by him and dried by him. He was very physical with us. 'He would make sure he would dry us off and the drying wasn't normal - it was more intense.' Bernard said he remembered saying no to a number of advances made by Fr McNamee and said the priest's reaction to being rejected was not good. 'There was a lot of anger in him,' he said. The priest had such a psychological hold on the boys he abused in the swimming pool that they would compete for his favour and special 'privileges'. One of those was to get a spin in his car and Bernard was one of the boys chosen for that dubious honour. The abuse would continue in the car with the priest 'touching' the boys as they drove, according to Bernard. The abuse suffered at the hands of Fr McNamee affected the rest of the Swords man's life and his teens were marred by alcohol abuse and what he describes as a lack of any real 'goals' at school. In adulthood, he made a number of attempts to deal with the issue and visited his old parish a number of times with a view to confronting his abuser who unbeknown to him, had already been moved on from the parish. He never did knock on the priest's door but he spoke to some of his school friends from those dark years but found most unwilling to talk about the abuse. Asked what he would say to the priest if he was still alive, he simply replied: ' What the hell were you doing?'
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