Ongoing religious scandals

Convicted paedophile and former 'singing' priest Tony Walsh has been sentenced to another four years in prison for indecent assaults of three schoolboys in the 1980s.

Judge Martin Nolan described the crimes of Walsh, 72, who was defrocked in 1992 and formally dismissed from the priesthood in 1996, as evil.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today that Walsh was a curate in Ballyfermot, Dublin and a chaplain to De La Salle school in Ballyfermot from 1978 to 1986 when he abused the boys.

Judge Nolan said that Walsh has spent around 20 years in prison since 1995 when he was first convicted of indecent assault and that the three victims in the charges before the court were "in a long line of victims".

"He has done many terrible things over the years. He abused the innocence of these young boys for his own purpose. He was grossly and morally reprehensible.

"He has caused a huge amount of harm emotionally and psychologically. What he has done is evil," Judge Nolan said.

Last January, Walsh, who is currently serving a sentence in the Midlands prison in Portlaoise, pleaded guilty to indecent assault of a child at a lane in Ballyfermot and indecent assault at De La Salle school on unknown dates between January 1983 and June 1986.

This victim told gardaí that he was aged around eight-years-old when Walsh would come to the school, "we all loved him, he wasn't a teacher, he was nice to us kids".

The victim said he had been put out of the class when he met Walsh in the school corridor. Walsh followed the boy into a toilet cubicle and sexually assaulted the boy before sending him back to the class "dazed and afraid".

On another occasion, Walsh again sexually assaulted this boy in a lane-way, telling him afterwards that if he told anyone about what happened the child would get into trouble.

Walsh also pleaded guilty last month to indecent assault of a ten-year-old boy in 1982. The boy's great-grandmother had recently died when Walsh brought him to the parochial house and indecently assaulted him.

Finally, he pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault at De La Salle school in Ballyfermot on unknown dates between September 1980 and June 1984. The victim was aged seven to ten when Walsh repeatedly molested him and indecently assaulted him.

This victim told gardaí that Walsh would come to the school and perform Elvis impersonations and sing songs. He would also hear confessions from boys in a spare classroom and it was during these hearings that he molested and sexually assaulted this boy.

Reading from his own victim impact report, this victim, who is now aged 49, told the court that his life changed drastically as a result of the sexual abuse by Walsh at the school. He said Walsh would visit the school and call boys out of class for confession in a spare classroom.

"One by one we would go in to give confessions. This is where the sexual abuse and rape started. I don't remember what I did to invite this man to think it was okay to strip me of innocence and childhood.

"What I do remember is the shock, pain and confusion. What has never let me is the shame.

"The shame of being violated, degraded, humiliated, dehumanised, of not having the understanding or strength to make it stop.

"The shame of feeling and believing what happened was my fault. To this day I still carry this shame. This sexual abuse and rape continued for the next four years; four years of darkness and pain," he said. He said that during his time in the school "my emotional and physical well-being suffered".

"I was exposed to an adult world I didn't want any part of, a world that brought me nothing but pain," he said.

He told the court that the abuse meant he only achieved a fraction of his academic potential and affected his progress throughout his life. He continues to suffer nightmares and flashbacks and that his wife and children have also suffered because of the effects on him of the abuse.

Since 1995, Walsh has been convicted of 28 counts of indecent assault, five of sexual assault and five of buggery. In 2010 he received a nine-year prison sentence for the indecent assault and buggery of a number of children.

During his interview on some of these offences, Walsh told gardaí he had certain medical complaints which would make it difficult for him or impossible to perform the alleged acts. He later told them that he was attracted to young boys aged between ten and 12 and "that was always the case".

Imposing a four-year prison term, Judge Nolan said Walsh was a man who took advantage of the trust placed in him and that these offences were part of serious cumulative behaviour.

"But for the intervention of the defendant these boys', now men, lives would have been completely different. He has caused them much harm," he said.

A St John Of God Brother, that was principal of a school for boys with learning disabilities, is to go on trial in 2024 charged with indecently assaulting four boys at the school.

Aidan Clohessy (82) of Hospitaller Order of St John of God, Grenada, Stillorgan faces nine charges of indecently assaulting four boys at St Augustine’s School, Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin on dates between August 31st, 1968 and August 17th, 1986.

The defendant was formerly principal of the school.

On Thursday Brother Clohessy appeared at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where Judge Martin Nolan set a trial date for November 18th, 2024. He remanded him on continuing bail to that date.

The Spiritan congregation, formerly the Holy Ghost Fathers, have disclosed that 233 men have made allegations of abuse against 77 Irish Spiritans in ministries throughout Ireland and overseas. Of that number, 57 men have alleged they were abused on the campus of Blackrock College in Dublin. The Spiritans also run three other colleges in Dublin, St Mary’s College in Rathmines, Templeogue College and St Michael’s, as well as Rockwell College in Co Tipperary.

Since 2004 the congregation has paid out over €5 million in settlements surrounding abuse claims and for support services, with 12 of those settlements made with 12 men in connection with abuse at Blackrock College.

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Its [National Board for Safeguarding Children] report, published in September 2012, found that there were unacceptable failures over several decades to protect children from at least 47 alleged abusing Holy Ghost priests in its schools in Ireland. It also found that suspected abusers were often moved by the congregation, either within Ireland or abroad, provoking concern that other victims had yet to come forward.

On March 19th, 2009, he pleaded guilty to abusing Mr Healy and Paul Daly at St Mary’s College Rathmines.

On September 22nd, 2010, just over 18 months after that conviction, he joined the online Catholic Answers Forum blog as an observing member. At the time he was out of ministry and living at the Spiritans’ Kimmage Manor in Dublin in 2011.

In first posting, on October 2nd, 2010, under a heading “Response to the sex abuse situation” he signed himself as Henry Moloney and began: “Hello! My name is known to you ... so this limits what I can say.” He said while he accepted that paedophile priests had betrayed Christ, church, family, friends and innocent victims, he found it unacceptable to describe these priests as “Judases”.

He wrote: “The only Judge is Christ – so beware of taking up such a position on any failings by any Christian be he priest or lay person. We do so at our peril.”

In a second posting, dated October 6th, 2010, Moloney wrote: “The vast majority of child sexual abusers can not be rehabilitated, and they are and will remain a danger to children as long as they live. But, we should not limit those that we condemn to just those who abuse children sexually. We should modify our laws so that those who abuse children physically, mentally or in any other way are also subject to harsh legal punishment.”

A response dated February 19th, 2011, asked: “Is this the Rev Fr Henry F Moloney, CSSp who was our boarding home master at Christ the King College in Bo, Sierra Leone. Can someone help out please”. It was signed “Stipose”, whose identity is known to The Irish Times.

A second post from Stipose, dated February 23rd, 2011, reproduced an Irish Times report of March 20th, 2009, dealing with Moloney’s sentence hearing at the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin the previous day. Stipose continued: “It is proving to be very disturbing: of course he was a prime suspect when we were in school for sexually molesting and abusing boys; that it is now proven, I am finding [it] very hard to deal with this ...”

Moloney’s access to the internet was stopped when his online comments were brought to the attention of Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin by Mark Vincent Healy later in 2011.

David began to confide in Maura about what was happening to him. She expressed suspicions about Fr O’Byrne to her father, Prof Maurice Harmon, then of UCD’s English department. He spoke to the principal at Blackrock College and Fr O’Byrne disappeared for a few months.

When he returned, he got David a summer job in Blackrock College’s library and the abuse resumed. It even took place in Fr O’Byrne’s bedroom at Clareville, the residence of priests and teachers on the school campus.

David, then 38, made a statement to gardaí in Blackrock Garda station, as did Mark some time later, and another man who came forward. Fr O’Byrne was then 82 and living on the Blackrock College campus. In 2003, the Director of Public Prosecutions charged Fr O’Byrne with 37 offences arising from the boys’ abuse. The priest initiated a judicial review which went all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was decided in 2007 that as Fr O’Byrne was then so old (87) and the events referred to had been so far in the past the case should not proceed.

The Ryan family “never understood that decision”, David said. “It was so, so wrong,” and left him with “complete disgust at the judicial system in Ireland”.

Following a civil action initiated by the brothers, a six-figure settlement was agreed in 2003 with the Spiritans without admission of liability or apology.

In no case were there criminal or civil proceedings

Mourners and protesters faced off in Sydney on Thursday at the funeral service for Australian cardinal George Pell, a former top Vatican official who was acquitted in 2020 of sexual abuse accusations.

Australian police officials said they had dropped a court bid to block a protest after organisers agreed to change an initial demonstration route and gather in a road adjacent to St Mary's Cathedral, the funeral venue. Hundreds took part in the protest.

Pell’s body has laid in state since he died at the age of 81 in a Rome hospital last month from heart complications after a hip surgery.

“He’s the greatest Catholic Australia has ever produced, and one of our country’s greatest sons,” [former PM] Mr Abbott said during a eulogy.

“George Pell was the greatest man I’ve ever known.”

In a park opposite the cathedral, groups of protesters, many from the LGBT community, heard speeches against the cardinal and the Catholic Church. Some protesters were seen holding signs that read “Pell Burn in Hell”.

“[We’re here to] just show solidarity with the victims and the survivors of what’s happened through the Catholic Church, but particularly George Pell,” Layne Elbourne, a musician, told Reuters.

Small numbers of mourners held up rosary beads in response to protesters' chants, though there were no signs of physical clashes between the two groups.

Tensions had flared on Wednesday after some inside the church property were seen removing colourful ribbons tied by protesters along the fence of the cathedral, television footage showed.

The ribbons symbolised the pain inflicted on child sexual abuse victims, the protesters said.