UNITED KINGDOM
Irish Times
Former Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has admitted he is deeply ashamed of the way he handled sex abuse allegations concerning a Catholic Church priest in the 1980s.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor told a festival crowd how, as the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, he allowed priest Michael Hill to become the chaplain of Gatwick Airport despite Hill confessing to him that he had abused young boys.
The cleric (82) said he sent Hill for therapy before moving him to a new parish after being given assurances he would have no contact with children.
However, while at his new airport post, Hill went on to sexually assault a young man with learning difficulties who had missed a flight. Hill was jailed in 1997 for a string of attacks and then again for another five years in 2002 after disclosing fresh abuse during a sex offender treatment programme.
Speaking at the Hay Festival in south Wales, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said he would have done things differently now.
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