UNITED KINGDOM
Coventry Telegraph
By Tina Junday
May 7 2012
A LETTER has revealed the Catholic Church knew a paedophile priest had an “unwholesome relationship” with a man – 25 years before he was jailed for sexually abusing boys.
James Robinson, who worked as a priest in several parishes across the Midlands, including St Elizabeth’s Church, in Foleshill, Coventry fled to America in 1985 – days after police were first alerted by a victim about being abused by the ex-priest when he was a child.
But in October that year, a letter – which has been obtained by the Sunday Mercury – was sent on behalf of the Archbishop of Birmingham, Maurice Couve de Murville to Reverend Monsignor John Rawden, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
It was written by Monsignor Canon Daniel Leonard, Vicar General of the Archdiocese, who made no reference to the shocking allegations of child sexual abuse against Robinson and later proven, in his correspondence.
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