HRC Handelsblad
April 28, 2010
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2534257.ece/Dutch_police_knew_about_paedophile_priest
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| Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb was not informed of the convicted sex offender living in his city. Photo by Bas Czerwinski |
Rotterdam police knew that Oliver O’Grady, a former priest who served seven years for raping children, had moved to their city and was working with children there. But it failed to report his presence to the city's mayor.
O'Grady was convicted for sexually abusing very young children in the US in 1993 and deported to his native Ireland in 2000. Mid 2008, Dutch police were alerted by the international police organisation, Interpol, that the defrocked sex offender had moved to the Netherlands' second city. In Rotterdam, O'Grady volunteered at an expat church and a women's shelter under his middle name, Francis. He supplemented his priest's pension by organising children's parties at a local McDonald's.
A spokesperson for Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said the mayor was only informed of his presence in the community last January. As Aboutaleb is responsible for public order and safety in the city, he should have been told about O'Grady living there immediately. The police not only kept the information from the mayor, but it didn't inform the organisations and companies O'Grady worked with either.
When the mayor was finally notified, he asked the ministry of justice to declare O'Grady persona non grata, the spokesperson said. The ministry declined to grant this request. Instead, Rotterdam civil servants reportedly visited O'Grady and had some "serious conversations" with the man. He left the Netherlands only days later.
The police said there have been no reports of O'Grady molesting children while he was in the Netherlands. According to the Irish paper the Sunday Tribune, O'Grady is currently living in Dublin.
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