Report Says Catholic Clergy Abused Children for Decades in Section of Ireland, Irish Times, August 29, 2011

Report Says Catholic Clergy Abused Children for Decades in Section of Ireland

Irish Times
August 29, 2011

http://www.skyvalleychronicle.com/BREAKING-NEWS/REPORT-SAYS-CATHOLIC-CLERGY-ABUSED-CHILDREN-FOR-DECADES-IN-SECTION-OF-IRELAND-br-Police-said-to-be-complicit-in-cover-up-of-abuse-by-priests-and-others-

Police said to be complicit in cover up of abuse by priests and others

(COUNTY DONEGAL, IRELAND) – The Catholic church, already rocked by other sexual abuse cases in Europe and the U.S. is about to be rocked by another one.

An investigation into clerical sex abuse in the Catholic diocese of Raphoe in County Donegal is about to report its findings, which may well be shocking to the nation according to a report in the the UK newspaper The Guardian.

The report is expected to detail how pedophiles, both clergy and laity, abused children for decades in the county.

The report says a number of survivors of abuse have told the Guardian that lay members of the church as well as priests sexually exploited them for years in the county and they say the national police service, the Garda, was complicit in a culture of cover-up that allowed the perpetrators to carry on abusing them.

The paper reported that one man, John O'Donnell, spoke for the first time about his abuse as a child and the subsequent cover-up, revealing that he had been abused since he was nine by a lay member of a local church choir.

"He assaulted me from when I was nine until I was 15, until I was old enough to know it was wrong. This man took advantage because I was adopted and regarded as something lower than most kids in the area. The abuse took place at his home and in a shop he ran. It went on from 1965 to 1972," said O'Donell.

He also told the paper he had gone in 1973 to a local Garda station to report that he had been raped by the man, who has since died. He said the reaction to his claim was violent.

"A local guard was outraged that I was naming such a fine upstanding member of the community as a child rapist. The officer slapped me on the face and told me to get out. He said to me that I was adopted and not worth anything. From that day on I never fully trusted a member of the Garda Síochána."

Two years ago another report found widespread clerical abuse of children in Dublin, Ireland's largest Catholic diocese.

It also found that senior Garda officers colluded with four archbishops and top clerics in covering up the sex crimes of priests on a massive scale in the city.

The paper also reports that new evidence has emerged from victims of a parallel pedophile ring operating in the same Gaelic-speaking corner of the Irish Republic.