IRELAND
Sunday World
Tuesday 1st July 2014
This is the sports car enthusiast at the centre of a massive probe into child sex abuse in St Patrick’s Cathedral which is set to rock the Church of Ireland.
Patrick O’Brien looks like a kind, mild-mannered grandfather outside his home in a leafy suburb of south Dublin last week.
Unknown to his neighbours, the 75-year-old is under investigation by Gardai after being accused of a range of sex crimes by up to 12 people.
It is not the first time the retired business executive has come to the attention of the Gardai for alleged sex crimes – and was the subject of a child sex probe in 1989.
The allegations against O’Brien are set to rock the Church of Ireland (COI) because, it is claimed, he targeted his victims while working as a volunteer in the world famous St Patrick’s Cathedral.
The Protestant cathedral is one of the city’s most famous and iconic buildings and is a popular tourist destination.
But now a number of civil actions have been launched against the board of the Cathedral – implicating the COI in the child sex abuse scandals for the first time.
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