RICHMOND (VA)
WRIC TV
February 22, 2019
By Kerri O’Brien
A group that documents abuse in the Catholic Church says names are missing from a list of accused sex abusers recently released by the Diocese of Richmond.
8News has been combing over the Diocese of Richmond list and comparing it to an online group’s that has been tracking abuse allegations for years.
“It is really important not to let names fall through the cracks,” said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org.
McKiernan spoke to 8News over Skype from Massachusetts about BishopAccountability.org, a website which maintains a database of priests and nuns accused of abuse.
BishopAccountability.org often works with law enforcement to fill out its database.
“We’re careful to include in the database people who have been publicly accused of abusing children,” McKiernan said when asked what criteria the site uses to create the database.
List reveals names of dozens of Virginia priests facing ‘credible’ child sex abuse allegations
“We use as evidence,” he continued, “reports in publicly available court documents, reports in mainstream media.”
When reviewing the Bishop Accountability database for the Diocese of Richmond, 8News found five names on their list not found on the list provided by the Richmond Diocese’s bishop last week. This includes an ex-priest on Virginia’s sex offender registry and a nun convicted of molesting a 10-year-old boy in Virginia Beach.
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