A Victim Has Told of the Devastating Impact of Alleged Child Sex Abuse by a Tonbridge Priest

By Sian Elvin
Kent Live
February 8, 2017

http://www.kentlive.news/a-victim-s-life-was-irreversibly-changed-by-child-sex-abuse-at-the-hands-of-a-tonbridge-priest/story-30119182-detail/story.html

Monsignor Michael Smith was accused of sex abuse. He died in 2011.

A victim of child sex abuse allegedly carried out by a Catholic priest from Tonbridge has spoken out about the horrific abuse he suffered at the hands of a "devious predator".

The victim, who must remain anonymous for legal reasons, successfully claimed compensation from the church last year after Monsignor Michael Smith took his own life before the case against him could be taken to court.

A parish priest at Corpus Christi Church in Lyons Crescent for 19 years, the 63-year-old was arrested in December 2010 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child but was found dead after taking fatal doses of a prescription painkiller in April 2011.