RHODE ISLAND/CONNECTICUT
Patch
Posted by Elizabeth McNamara (Editor) , November 21, 2013
When victims of sexual abuse by priests gathered this week in Providence, at least two of them were there because of abuse they say they suffered while growing up in East Greenwich.
Helen McGonigle lived on Dale Hill Drive from 1967 to 1973 and was abused by Fr. Brendan Symth, who was serving at Our Lady of Mercy during those years. Jeffrey Thomas, who grew up nearby to McGonigle, was also sexually abused by Smyth.
Smyth, who was convicted of 141 cases of sexual assault in Ireland, died in an Irish prison in 1994. His story is well known in Ireland and the U.K. but remains much less so here in Rhode Island. The Catholic Diocese of Providence does not release information about Smyth.
McGonigle and Thomas were in Providence on Wednesday in support of victims of more recent abuse. In particular, they were protesting the Catholic Diocese of Providence’s failure to report more than 800 cases of sexual abuse to the R.I. State Police in the past 20 years.
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