BishopAccountability.org
	Former Priest Found in Alameda Faces Extradition to Ireland By Peter Hegarty Oakland Tribune February 24, 2011 http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_17474073 A federal judge has ruled that a former Catholic priest who investigators tracked down living in Alameda should be extradited to his native Ireland to face charges that he sexually assaulted six boys between 1973 and 1981. Patrick Joseph McCabe, 75, is expected to appeal the ruling, which was handed down Tuesday in San Francisco by U.S. Magistrate Nandor Vadas. Irish officials say McCabe admitted to investigators in 2007 that he was attracted to young boys dressed in uniforms and ties and that he gained "satisfaction" from embracing them. At least three former parishioners have sued the Santa Rosa Diocese -- where McCabe worked from 1983 until his forced resignation in 1987 -- alleging that McCabe also molested them. According to a 2009 Irish government report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, officials in the Dublin Archdiocese allegedly moved priests to the United States and other locations after they became aware of complaints against them. While McCabe has fought extradition since surrendering to U.S. authorities in July, he admitted wrongdoing when Irish police questioned him at the Alameda police station in November 2007, according to local investigators. "He said, 'I knew I had a problem,' or words to that effect, and that, 'I had pneumonia and the Catholic Church treated me for a cold,'" said retired Alameda police Sgt. Kevin McNiff, who helped investigate the case. McCabe's comment was a reference to the decision by church authorities to move the former priest to the United States after allegations against him surfaced in Ireland, McNiff said. "He felt the church downplayed it," McNiff said. The former Alameda detective initially interviewed McCabe in September 2007 after Interpol asked local police to check whether McCabe was living in their city. McNiff was also present two months later when McCabe allegedly admitted molesting boys during the course of a three-day interview with two Irish police officers, who had traveled to the Bay Area as part of the investigation. "He did not deny it," McNiff said about McCabe. "He said he was attracted to young boys and that he acted upon it." Among the incidents McCabe confirmed for Irish police during his Bay Area interviews was one that occurred about 1975, McNiff said. McCabe described noticing a photo of the victim while visiting the boy's family home -- and thinking the youth was attractive -- then traveling to the boy's school to introduce himself to him, police said. McCabe then molested the boy inside his car while on school property, police said. At the time of his arrest McCabe was living on Walnut Street in Alameda. After leaving the priesthood, he worked as an administrator at Water's Edge Lodge, a retirement home on Alameda's Island Drive. In September 2007, when Interpol first requested help tracking down McCabe, McNiff and Alameda police Officer Aaron Hardy visited the retirement home. The officers asked the former priest if he knew why they wished to talk with him. "He said, 'Yes, I was accused of doing some really bad stuff involving children,'" McNiff said.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.