LIMERICK (IRELAND)
Extra.ie [Dublin, Ireland]
July 21, 2024
By Anne Sheridan
[See also the documentary.]
A niece of Eamonn Casey, who claims she was raped and sexually abused by the former Bishop of Galway, said her fear that another young girl would be his next victim was what prompted her to report her allegations to gardaí.
Patricia Donovan, from Limerick, first reported Bishop Casey for alleged abuse in 2005, which allegedly took place from the late 1960s, starting when she was just five years old and continuing for more than a decade.
Ms Donovan spoke out for the first time in 2019 to the Irish Mail on Sunday, which extensively reported details of her allegations, along with separate abuse claims made by other women.
Now, more than 50 years after the alleged abuse, Ms Donovan’s own voice will be heard for the first time as she reveals her efforts to hold Catholic Church authorities to account in an RTÉ documentary made in association with the MoS.
Retracing how she finally decided to pick up the phone and report her uncle to authorities, Ms Donovan tells the documentary: ‘I had found out that he was visiting someone and staying overnight where there was a teenage girl, and that was what was in my mind when I picked up the phone. All I thought of was that girl.’
Ms Donovan previously told the MoS the alleged abuse happened in the three dioceses where her uncle served – Limerick, Kerry and Galway.
‘He was quite organised and selective, and I think he saw that I was vulnerable and quite sensitive. It was rape, everything you imagine. It was the worst kind of abuse. It was horrific. I stopped being able long ago to find any words in the English language to describe what happened to me. It was one horrific thing after another,’ she said.
Detectives in Limerick went to England to take a statement from Ms Donovan in January 2006 but, by August of the same year, the DPP directed that no charges be brought on 13 sample allegations.
ishop Casey, who denied the allegations, later said he was ‘utterly amazed’ by the speed of the decision from the DPP, claiming he had only been interviewed by gardaí a few weeks previously.
Documentation seen by the MoS reveals numerous attempts by Ms Donovan in the intervening years to ensure her alleged abuser did not have access to, and could not potentially abuse, any other children.