NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY DONNA DEENEY – 11 MAY 2013
A pervert priest exposed as a serial paedophile by the Belfast Telegraph has taken his secrets to the grave, never having faced justice.
Fr John McCullagh (80) was found dead in the Maghera retirement home he fled to after it was revealed he had sexually abused a girl in Londonderry for seven years from when she was just eight-years-old. The priest never revealed the full extent of his depravity against young girls, with many more victims thought to have remained silent.
It was not until her 18th birthday in 1989 that his victim finally broke down and confided in her parents about the years of abuse she had been subjected to.
She said McCullagh would take her for drives in his car and that “there is not a road in either Co Derry or Donegal that I wasn’t abused on”.
Other victims did come forward in the wake of the Belfast Telegraph expose, but McCullagh never faced justice in court.
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