Brendan Smyth: Victims of paedophile priest cannot sue church

IRELAND
BBC News

Victims of a paedophile priest have been prevented from taking fresh legal action against the Catholic Church.

The High Court in Dublin made the ruling against the trio, who settled cases against Brendan Smyth in 1998.

The victims alleged negligence because complaints made about Smyth in 1975 were not reported.

But the judge said that the alleged new or additional facts were already in the public domain when the cases were settled.

The trio took a case against the Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly, and Cardinal Sean Brady – the head of the Catholic church in Ireland.

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