IRELAND
Irish Independent
Tim Healy
PUBLISHED
05/05/2016
Gardaí are entitled to keep a computer record relating to allegations of historic child sex abuse against a former priest, the High Court has ruled.
The court refused the former priest’s wife orders seeking the removal of the material concerning her and her two children from the garda PULSE database.
He had left the priesthood in 1995 and later married. The abuse allegations, involving sex with two children, dated back to 1981. The PULSE record states that historical abuse allegations were made against the former priest and as he now has two children, there “may be child protection issues”.
It also states the former priest is considered to be of such a low risk level that the HSE would be entitled to close its file on him.
The wife claimed the refusal to erase the material breached her and her children’s constitutional and European Convention privacy and family rights.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.