NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times
Mary Carolan
A Stg £25,000 payment made to a man who sued in the Northern Ireland courts over being sexually abused as a child over years by paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth was a “full and final settlement” and the man cannot bring a fresh case here against a Catholic Bishop, the High Court has been told.
The Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O’Reilly, has asked the court to stop the man suing him, in his representative capacity as Bishop of Kilmore, over alleged failures by the diocese and Catholic Church to stop Smyth’s abusive behaviour.
The man insists he is entitled to sue on grounds including that a previous Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Francis McKiernan, was allegedly made aware in 1975 that Brendan Smyth was abusing children but failed to report that to the gardaí or the man’s parents.
It is alleged that a young boy had, at meetings in 1975 with priests of the Catholic Church, told the then Fr Sean Brady – now Cardinal Sean Brady — that Smyth was abusing children.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.