UNITED KINGDOM
Derby Telegraph
By Martin_Naylor | Posted: February 26, 2014
A SEARCH warrant for on-the-run paedophile priest Francis Cullen was withdrawn because it was believed he could not realistically be found.
The Ministry of Justice say “a judge or a magistrate” would have signed a document calling off the warrant nine years after he skipped bail in 1991.
But the department said the warrant would have been reissued if, during further investigations, circumstances changed and Cullen could have been found.
On Monday, the 85-year-old, who was parish priest at Christ the King, in Mackworth from 1960 to 1978, pleaded guilty to 21 sexual abuse offences.
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