Post by Wasp on Dec 19, 2010 16:50:44 GMT
FR FILTH RAPED A CHILD EVERY TWO WEEKS - and the Church let him do it for 16 years
Irish Daily Star
• By PATRICK O'CONNELL Chief reporter
Saturday December 18, 2010
VILE priest Tony Walsh abused at least two children a month for years a sickening report into his evil attacks revealed yesterday.Nicknamed 'Fr Filth', he abused hundreds of girls and boys over at least 16 years as the Catholic hierarchy did very little to stop him. SEE PAGE 4
Report says abuse warnings were ignored
Church let Fr Filth rape HUNDREDS of innocent kids
SEX-FIEND cleric Fr Tony Walsh abused altar boys in the bedroom of his parochial house - sometimes at the rate of two a month - it emerged yesterday.
And his abuse of boys and girls was allowed to continue for years even though the first complaints against him were made just two days after he was appointed curate in Ballyfermot, Dublin, in 1978.
Chapter 19 of the Murphy Report published yesterday identifies Walsh - an Elvis impersonator who performed on the All Priests Show - as one of the Catholic Church's most "notorious" paedophiles.
The chapter - published after Walsh was jailed on 17 counts of sex abuse - said the number of his victims was likely to have run into hundreds.
It reveals for the first time that Walsh "admitted to using children for sexual gratification once a fortnight over an eight*year period".
Plea
It tells how a cardinal, several bishops and at least two members of the gardai were made aware of allegations against Walsh during this time.
But it wasn't until Cardinal Desmond Connell made an unprecedented plea to Pope John Paul II that Walsh was finally cast out of the priesthood in 1995.
The report details how Walsh's abuse of altar boys and girls began in the 1970s when was a seminarian studying for the priesthood.
He borrowed a key to a house owned by convicted paedophile Fr Noel Reynolds - and took children there to abuse them.
He also took over trips run by convicted paedophiles Fr Bill Carney and Fr Francis McCarthy, on which they had abused children.
In 1978, just two days after he took up his post as curate in Ballyfermot parish, a complaint was received at Archbishop's House that he had sexually abused an eight*year-old boy.
A second complaint was made by the mother of a boy who said he was abused by alsh in 1978 and 1979. No action was taken in either case.
By March 1985 at least seven priests in the Dubl in archdiocese knew of complaints against Walsh. And senior administrator Monsignor Alex Stenson decided to move him to Westland Row in Dublin's south inner city.
But Walsh's new parish priest was not told of the four credible accusations the church had now received about him. And Walsh received a letter from Archbishop Kevm McNamara thanking him for his "dedicated work" in Ballyfermot.
Within two years fresh allegations were brought to the church's attention by a house*keeper for Walsh in Westland Row.
She contacted Msgr Stenson - the chancellor of the archdiocese - in January 1987 saying she had found "used underwear (which she had to burn), condoms and syringes" in the pervert cleric's room.
She also warned that "a number of boys had slept overnight in his bed".
Msgr Stenson - a canonical lawyer whose office dealt with child abuse allegations in the archdiocese until 2004 - said he had "no doubt about her truthfulness".
Disturbed
Walsh was allowed to remain in ministry - even though a report to the Archdiocese in 1988 described him as "a very disturbed man who is always going to be dangerous".
!t was not until two years later that auxiliary bishop' Eamonn Walsh suggested at a meeting that the church should tell gardai Tony Walsh was a paedophile. .
The option was discussed by Cardinal Connell, auxiliary bishops James Kavanagh Dermot O'Mahony, Donal Murray, Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Msgr Stenson.
However the idea "didn't get far" and was ultimately described by Msgr Gerard Sheehy as "outrageous." In January 19913 - 16 years after the first complaint - Walsh was finally dismissed as a priest.
He. was given €10,500 severance pay, but contmued to represent himself as a priest.
The report concludes that action should have been taken by the Archdiocese in 1979 at the latest - but recognises that Dr Connell did act decisively once he became Archbishop. It also found it unacceptable that two gardai who were told about Walsh in 1990 and 1992 failed to pursue a criminal investigation.
Irish Daily Star
• By PATRICK O'CONNELL Chief reporter
Saturday December 18, 2010
VILE priest Tony Walsh abused at least two children a month for years a sickening report into his evil attacks revealed yesterday.Nicknamed 'Fr Filth', he abused hundreds of girls and boys over at least 16 years as the Catholic hierarchy did very little to stop him. SEE PAGE 4
Report says abuse warnings were ignored
Church let Fr Filth rape HUNDREDS of innocent kids
SEX-FIEND cleric Fr Tony Walsh abused altar boys in the bedroom of his parochial house - sometimes at the rate of two a month - it emerged yesterday.
And his abuse of boys and girls was allowed to continue for years even though the first complaints against him were made just two days after he was appointed curate in Ballyfermot, Dublin, in 1978.
Chapter 19 of the Murphy Report published yesterday identifies Walsh - an Elvis impersonator who performed on the All Priests Show - as one of the Catholic Church's most "notorious" paedophiles.
The chapter - published after Walsh was jailed on 17 counts of sex abuse - said the number of his victims was likely to have run into hundreds.
It reveals for the first time that Walsh "admitted to using children for sexual gratification once a fortnight over an eight*year period".
Plea
It tells how a cardinal, several bishops and at least two members of the gardai were made aware of allegations against Walsh during this time.
But it wasn't until Cardinal Desmond Connell made an unprecedented plea to Pope John Paul II that Walsh was finally cast out of the priesthood in 1995.
The report details how Walsh's abuse of altar boys and girls began in the 1970s when was a seminarian studying for the priesthood.
He borrowed a key to a house owned by convicted paedophile Fr Noel Reynolds - and took children there to abuse them.
He also took over trips run by convicted paedophiles Fr Bill Carney and Fr Francis McCarthy, on which they had abused children.
In 1978, just two days after he took up his post as curate in Ballyfermot parish, a complaint was received at Archbishop's House that he had sexually abused an eight*year-old boy.
A second complaint was made by the mother of a boy who said he was abused by alsh in 1978 and 1979. No action was taken in either case.
By March 1985 at least seven priests in the Dubl in archdiocese knew of complaints against Walsh. And senior administrator Monsignor Alex Stenson decided to move him to Westland Row in Dublin's south inner city.
But Walsh's new parish priest was not told of the four credible accusations the church had now received about him. And Walsh received a letter from Archbishop Kevm McNamara thanking him for his "dedicated work" in Ballyfermot.
Within two years fresh allegations were brought to the church's attention by a house*keeper for Walsh in Westland Row.
She contacted Msgr Stenson - the chancellor of the archdiocese - in January 1987 saying she had found "used underwear (which she had to burn), condoms and syringes" in the pervert cleric's room.
She also warned that "a number of boys had slept overnight in his bed".
Msgr Stenson - a canonical lawyer whose office dealt with child abuse allegations in the archdiocese until 2004 - said he had "no doubt about her truthfulness".
Disturbed
Walsh was allowed to remain in ministry - even though a report to the Archdiocese in 1988 described him as "a very disturbed man who is always going to be dangerous".
!t was not until two years later that auxiliary bishop' Eamonn Walsh suggested at a meeting that the church should tell gardai Tony Walsh was a paedophile. .
The option was discussed by Cardinal Connell, auxiliary bishops James Kavanagh Dermot O'Mahony, Donal Murray, Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Msgr Stenson.
However the idea "didn't get far" and was ultimately described by Msgr Gerard Sheehy as "outrageous." In January 19913 - 16 years after the first complaint - Walsh was finally dismissed as a priest.
He. was given €10,500 severance pay, but contmued to represent himself as a priest.
The report concludes that action should have been taken by the Archdiocese in 1979 at the latest - but recognises that Dr Connell did act decisively once he became Archbishop. It also found it unacceptable that two gardai who were told about Walsh in 1990 and 1992 failed to pursue a criminal investigation.