Church Admits "Failings" in Case of Paedophile Priest Anthony Mcsweeney Who Was Transferred to a New Parish after Cleaner Found Stash of Child Abuse Videos

By John Lucas
Echo
April 24, 2017

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/15242305.Church_admits__failings__in_case_of_paedophile_priest_who_was_transferred_to_a_new_parish_after_cleaner_found_stash_of_child_abuse_videos/

Anthony McSweeney

CHURCH bosses failed to take action when concerns were raised about a paedophile priest who was later jailed for sexually abusing a boy at a care home, an independent review has found.

Perverted Anthony McSweeney was reported to the Diocese of Brentwood while serving as parish priest at St Peter’s Church, in Eastwood Road North, Leigh, in 1998.

A cleaner had stumbled on videotapes showing boys aged about 14 being sexually abused, but she was fobbed off when she tried to alert senior clergy.

Instead, it took until 2015 for the 70-year-old to be jailed for three years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy while working at the Grafton Children’s Home in Hounslow, London, between 1979 and 1981.

In the meantime, the Diocese of Brentwood transferred McSweeney to Norwich, part of the Diocese of East Anglia.

Both Diocese commissioned an independent safeguarding report into the scandal following the court case.

Authors Denis White, of East Anglia, and Linda Ransom, of Brentwood, found there had been “failings” in the case and church leaders should have reported the videotapes to the police.

During the trial at Southwark Crown Court, jurors heard how the cleaner telephoned police, but got cold feet when they said she would have to give her name.

She claimed that when she spoke to the Church, she was told bosses knew McSweeney was gay and she was probably mistaken about the age of the boys in the video.

The priest was moved from the church several months later without explanation and was only arrested when a victim came forward in the wake of the Jimmy Savile revelations.

Thousands of child abuse images were later found on his computer.

The Diocese review also found that “local priests and parishioners were not adequately supported” and their concerns were not taken “sufficiently seriously nor acted upon diligently”.

McSweeney's transfer to East Anglia was also “poorly managed, lacked insight and was not adequately documented.”

A spokesman for the Dioceses of Brentwood and East Anglia said: "At the time of these events awareness of the need for child protection was in its infancy.

"Now over 95% of parishes have at least one safeguarding representative whose task it is to ensure that the concerns of the local clergy and parishioners are taken seriously, and to refer those concerns to the diocesan safeguarding coordinator.

“Since 2001, if a priest asks to be transferred from one diocese to another, formal undertakings have to be given that the priest is of good standing before such a move can take place, and there is guidance in respect of this.”

The Diocese has asked the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service, and the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission, to “review and clarify” the existing policy about priests transferring from one diocese to another, to issue clear guidelines for managing cases potentially involving indecent images and to review the existing "whistleblowing" policy.