This is Gloucestershire
May 20, 2011
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Priest-named-Murphy-report-living-Cotswolds/article-3576680-detail/article.html
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| history of abuse: Former priest Bill Carney was convicted of two counts of indecent assault in 1983 |
FORMER Catholic priest Bill Carney – one of the worst child sex offenders identified in the Murphy report into clerical abuse in Ireland – is living near a children's play area in the Cotswolds, it has emerged.
A worried parent contacted the Echo after discovering the notorious paedophile had moved into a semi-detached property near his home in Northleach.
The father-of-two, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had hoped his two young children would be able to use the nearby play facility unsupervised this summer, but he now had no choice but to keep them under his constant supervision.
He said: "I think it's important people know he living here.
"There's a lot of whispering, but someone needs to speak up. This is the first summer I would have allowed my two children to walk out to the play area on their own, but now I can't."
The Murphy report – published in November 2009 – described Carney as "a serial sexual abuser of children" linked to at least 32 complaints and suspicions of abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin.
Compiled by Judge Yvonne Murphy, it cited Carney's abuse of children as some of the worst investigated.
And, equally worryingly, a psychiatric assessment in the Murphy report said the former priest's "refusal to acknowledge his paedophilia means the prognosis for a cure is bleak".
The Irishman was convicted of two counts of indecent assault in 1983 and, in 1992, he was defrocked after church authorities convicted him of child sex abuse.
However, he has never been tried for the numerous allegations outlined in the Murphy report, all of which he has consistently denied.
Northleach Town Council was formally notified that Carney was living locally at its annual meeting on Wednesday evening.
A resident told councillors: "I just want to make the council aware, if they are not already, that Bill Carney has moved back into (a house in Northleach)..." Asked by one councillor who Carney was, the resident replied: "Bill Carney was one of the Catholic priests named in the Murphy report."
The council was also made aware that Carney was understood not to be on the register for sex offenders used by UK police because his only two convictions for indecent assault took place in Ireland and too long ago.
Newly-elected chairman, Neil Fletcher, concluded the discussion by saying he would contact the police about the matter.
He said: "The police will contact the police about this, although I don't think we have any power over it. It's a very difficult subject and none of us are probably qualified."
Gloucestershire police yesterday refused to say whether they were aware of the fact Carney was living locally, or whether neighbours should be concerned.
Spokeswoman Alexa Collicott said: "We do not comment specifically on individuals previously convicted or under investigation out of the county.
"If residents have any concerns about safety in the community we would encourage them to report it."
When the Echo confronted Carney about his past and his neighbours' concerns, he declined to comment.
PROFILE:
BILL Carney is one of 46 priests featured in the Murphy report, which investigated the handling of allegations of child abuse against clerics in Dublin by the Catholic Church and Irish authorities.
The investigating commission's 41-page brief on Carney said he was born in 1950 and ordained for the Archdiocese of Dublin in 1974.
The report said he had access to numerous children in residential care and regularly took groups of them on holiday and swimming. In summary, it said Carney was a serial sexual abuser of dozens of young people.
Most shockingly, however, it said that Carney admitted two counts of indecent assault in 1983 and compensation had been paid to six of his victims, but that he was soon back working, with access to children.
"He was one of the most serious serial abusers investigated by the commission," the report said. "There is some evidence suggesting that, on separate occasions, he may have acted in concert with other convicted clerical child sexual abusers.
"A number of witnesses who gave evidence to the commission, including priests of the diocese, described Bill Carney as crude and loutish. Virtually all referred to his crude language and unsavoury personal habits.
"One parent told the commission that the family had complained to the parish priest about his behaviour but the parish priest said there was nothing he could do."
The report said the Church's handling of his case was "nothing short of catastrophic".
"It was inept, self-serving and for the best part of 10 years displayed no obvious concern for the welfare of children," it said.
In 1992, the Church convicted Carney internally of child sex abuse. He later moved to Cheltenham and then to Scotland where, in 2004, he married Joan Clayton, whom he had met in Gloucestershire in the 1990s. The couple also bought a home in Northleach.
However, his wife only found out about her husband's past when the Murphy report was published and one of her sons told her.
In a Daily Mail article published in March, Joan said: "I felt physically sick. I couldn't believe what I was reading."
She and Carney had been holidaying in Lanzarote at the time, and following Joan's discovery she returned to Scotland to begin divorce proceedings and handled the sale of the couple's guesthouse in Scotland.
Meanwhile, the BBC journalist Olenka Frenkiel caught up with Carney in Lanzarote, where he lived for a year, to confront him about the Murphy report.
Reporting for Newsnight, she established that the Irish authorities knew his address but that no one had thought to warn his new wife about his past, and that he was subsequently free to "disappear beneath the radar".
Since the publication of the Murphy report, the lack of action on the part of the Irish authorities in bringing the named priests to justice has been a source of distress and confusion to the alleged victims and their families.
One of Carney's alleged victims was Paul Dwyer, who told police in 2004 he had been raped 21 years earlier.
The BBC said the police said they had received two other complaints like his and had sent the file to the Irish director of public prosecutions, but it decided not to prosecute.
Paul committed suicide two weeks later.
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