WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
NewsHub [Auckland, NZ]
July 4, 2024
By Michael Morrah
[Watch video.]
A Newshub investigation into historic allegations of abuse at a Catholic-run orphanage in Upper Hutt has led to revelations the church has already upheld a separate complaint against one of the priests accused.
The church is currently investigating Steve Carvell’s complaint that alleges he was abused when he was 7-year-old by two priests at St Joseph’s Orphanage in the 1970s.
Newshub has learned another complaint about Father Noel Donoghue went to the church in 2006 and was investigated.
And now a third person has come forward alleging he too was abused by Donoghue.
It was two grainy black-and-white images of Father Noel Donoghue broadcast on Newshub in March which immediately triggered a strong reaction from a man who Newshub has agreed not to identify.
“Yeah, that horrifies me,” he told Newshub looking at the historical photo of Donoghue.
“It sent a shiver up my spine, because as soon as I’d seen the photo of Noel Donoghue it sort of brought it back,” he said.
He said it brought him back to his days at St Joseph’s in Upper Hutt.
He was a student at the primary school and his family went to the church where he was an altar boy.
“Either before or after the mass, he’d give me a hug and it was uncomfortable because even at that young age I still know now it wasn’t right because he was erect.”
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Until recently, he’d only ever told his wife what happened.
As a young boy who was raised Catholic, he says he never dreamt of speaking out back then.
“Scared and had no one to turn to because they wouldn’t believe me because they saw him (Donoghue) as God.”
He says Donoghue – who died in 2005 – abused him again as a teenager at the presbytery, which is attached to St Joseph’s Church.
Only this time he says it was more forceful.
“He grabbed me and hugged me and pressed me up against the wall and he was erect, to which I was just horrified. He was holding me there, yeah, yeah.”
He managed to push Donoghue off and said he ran.
It was in 1977, when Donoghue was head priest at St Joseph’s in Upper Hutt, that Steve Carvell says he was raped by Donoghue while staying at St Joseph’s Orphanage.
“It was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Carvell told Newshub in March.
It was Carvell’s allegations against Donoghue which prompted the new complainant to come forward.
“Support Steve, this is what my hīkoi is about.”
Steph Moynihan also contacted Newshub after we published Carvell’s allegations.
She says her late dad, former Kāpiti College principal Peter Goodwin, received a complaint about Donoghue abusing one of his pupils in the late 1980s when Donoghue was living in Waikanae.
“The woman who was caring for this boy was very, very concerned and she got in touch with my dad who was principal at Kāpiti College, where the boy was attending, and she was very concerned that the boy was being interfered with,” Moynihan told Newshub.
She said her dad raised it with Donoghue’s superior but he was disappointed with the response and felt they were not interested.
“Brushing it under the carpet. We’ll just park that over there and we won’t worry about it.”
Newshub has now learned the church received an entirely different complaint in 2006 about Donoghue’s conduct in 1984 when he was living in Waikanae.
The Archbishop of Wellington, Paul Martin, said it was investigated.
“The outcome was that the complaint was upheld based on the balance of probabilities,” Martin told Newshub.
Martin said his predecessor, Cardinal John Dew, would have known about the 2006 complaint.
Newshub asked Dew about it. He said he didn’t remember it, but then made enquiries.
“I have to acknowledge now that I was wrong and that your information is correct,” he said in a statement.
“I don’t have any specific details other than that I am told it was not an allegation of sexual abuse. And I still do not recall it at all,” he said.
The Catholic Church described the complaint as a ‘serious boundary violation’ which was investigated by the church’s Sexual Abuse Protocol Committee.
Dew and Donoghue worked together at St Joseph’s Parish in the 70s.
In March, Dew told Newshub Donoghue was a mentor, and he was surprised by Carvell’s allegation against Donoghue.
“I find that very hard to believe. Very hard to believe,” Dew told Newshub in March.
When asked why that was, Dew responded saying “oh, just unexpected of a person, the person that I came to know.
He said he stands by his comments Donoghue was a mentor and says he never observed any misconduct by him.
Between Steve Carvell, our source, the late Kāpiti College principal and the other complainant that went straight to the church, there are now four complaints against Donoghue that we know of.
Police, who have been investigating the Carvell complaint, told Newshub they were not aware of the 2006 allegations.
“We can’t immediately see a report referred to Police in 2006 of the incident, nor can I see we were made aware of this complaint,” a police spokesperson told Newshub.