Cardinal Keith O'Brien Snubbed the Victim at the Centre of the Carfin Grotto Sex Abuse Probe

Daily Record
May 2, 2013

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cardinal-keith-obrien-snubbed-alleged-1864929

Cardinal Keith O'Brien

Pat McEwan as a boy

DEVOUT Catholic Pat McEwan insists he wrote to Keith O'Brien in 2010 detailing how he was raped by two priests and begged him to investigate his alleged abusers.

THE victim at the centre of the Carfin Grotto sex abuse probe yesterday revealed he was snubbed by Cardinal Keith O’Brien after begging him to investigate his tormentors.

Devout Catholic Pat McEwan sent a hand-written letter to O’Brien, then Scotland’s most senior churchman, in 2010 after undergoing years of counselling about his experiences.

The 63-year-old described in harrowing detail how he was raped by two priests and asked the then-Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh to help him.

But O’Brien washed his hands of the matter and sent it back to Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell, who Pat claims had previously asked him to forgive the alleged abusers.

A church spokesman denied O’Brien had turned a blind eye to Pat’s complaints.

He said: “There are eight bishops in Scotland and each is responsible for his own diocese. Therefore, it wasn’t the cardinal’s responsibility to intervene in this case. It is a matter that should be taken to Rome.”

In the letter to O’Brien – who was forced to resign in disgrace this year after admitting “inappropriate conduct” with other priests – Pat pleaded with him to kick his abusers out of the church.

He wrote: “I feel sorry for the decent priests still serving. It is time to face the facts, admit and accept what has been happening and get them off the altar and out the church.”

But the Cardinal insisted: “I have no jurisdiction over another diocese in Scotland. All the responsibilities fall on the shoulders of the local bishop.”

O’Brien also indicated that he had spoken with Frank Cassidy, Chancellor of Motherwell Diocese, who told him church figures had contacted police in the 90s but no action was taken.

He continued: “Because of my own lack of responsibility within the diocese, there is no way I could or should be involved with Mr McEwan.

“I do hope that Mr McEwan fully understands this and seeks what solace he needs from one or other of the priests of the diocese to help him, if he is upset at this present time.”

O’Brien left public life after details of his inappropriate behaviour with other priests came to light.

This week, he came out of hiding to move belongings from his sprawling St Benet’s mansion in Morningside, Edinburgh, to a new church house in Dunbar, East Lothian.

On Monday, we revealed how police have re-opened an investigation into Pat’s claims that he was abused by two priests, now in their 80s, between 1958 and 1961. A third priest, also accused by Pat, died in 1963.

One of the rapes is alleged to have taken place at Carfin Grotto in Lanarkshire when Pat was just eight.

Bishop Devine, 76, rubbished Pat’s allegations and said he was living in “a fantasy world”.

He added: “He is an alcoholic. For years he was uncontrollable.”