IRELAND
The Irish Times
June 7, 2018
By Patsy McGarry
Most of the 135 allegations of abusive behaviour reported in last year occurred before 2000
There has been a significant increase in clerical child sex abuse allegations reported to Catholic Church authorities in Ireland over the past year.
A report published on Thursday morning showed that during the year April 2017 to April 2018, 135 notifications of allegations, suspicions and concerns were received by the Church’s child protection watchdog, its National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), compared to an overall figure of 86 for the previous year.
A total of 104 of the 135 notifications related to allegations of child sexual abuse.
The 135 notifications allegedly involved 35 diocesan priests and 63 members of religious orders or congregations, or 98 individuals in total. That compares with 76 in the previous year, an increase of 29 per cent.
Of the 98 clergy concerned 45 are deceased, 21 are unknown (identity not given by the complainant), and 32 are alive.
NBSC chief executive Teresa Devlin pointed out however that “with one exception, most of the alleged abusive behaviour occurred before 2000, in line with previous reports and should not be taken to indicate that the church is currently becoming a less safe place for children.”
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