GARDA Commissioner Drew Harris said that Gardaí are re-examining the original investigation into shocking allegations that late Bishop Eamonn Casey sexually abused a number of children.
Speaking in Limerick, following a recent RTÉ documentary exposing the alleged abuse carried out by the former Bishop, Commissioner Harris revealed he sanctioned the new fresh review after concerns were raised about the original probe.
“Maybe a couple of different elements of things were said last week in terms of prolific sex offending, so, in respect of Bishop Casey, what I have asked for is for the original file to be examined. There was a query as to the nature and efficiency and effectiveness of that investigation,” he told reporters on a visit to Limerick.
“I want to be sure as to the standard of the (original) investigation that was conducted and that is what is happening in respect of that file.”
The Garda Commissioner refused to say if An Garda Síochána had received any fresh complaints of a sexual nature in respect of Bishop Casey, following on from the recent television documentary by Irish Daily Mail journalist Anne Sheridan, broadcast on RTÉ, which revealed that Casey allegedly molested children, including his niece Patricia Donovan, and that he had had a number of sexual relationships with adult women.
When specifically asked if Gardaí had received new complaints since the documentary aired on July 22, Commissioner Harris replied: “I’m not going to comment on individual complaints coming forward.”
The Limerick Catholic Diocese, where Casey began his ministry, told Ms Sheridan it paid €100,000 to an alleged victim of child sexual abuse by Casey. The compensation was one of a number of explosive revelations in the documentary.
Casey, who was born in Kerry but grew up in Adare, County Limerick, and went to school in St Munchin’s College, was once credited with tackling inner city poverty and homelessness in parishes in Limerick and later in England.
However, while Casey’s fall from grace over fathering a child with his distant cousin Annie Murphy was widely reported in the 1990s, Ms Sheridan’s investigative reporting into the allegations that Casey had sexually assaulted children has once again rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Speaking publicly for the first time, in the documentary, his niece, Patricia Donovan, alleged Bishop Casey sexually abused her for a number of years from when she was five years old.
Ms Donovan said Casey “had no fear of being caught” and that “he thought he could do what he liked, when he liked, how he liked”.
Ms Donovan, now in her 60s, reported the abuse claims about her uncle in 2005, but Casey, who was forced to resign as Bishop of Galway in 1992 after his affair with Ms Murphy came to light, was never charged with or convicted of any sexual offences.
The explosive documentary, Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, highlighted a total of eight allegations of child and adult sexual assaults and child safeguarding concerns against Casey.
Casey, who died in 2017, had always vehemently denied all allegations against him of sexual abuse.
