NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Media Group
By Staff Reporter
A man abused by pedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth has appealed to the authorities to make an interim compensation payment to the victims of predatory clerics who ran state-sanctioned care homes.
Sam Adair, who was repeatedly abused by Fr Brendan Smyth when he was ‘in care’ at Nazareth Lodge on the Ormeau Road, warned yesterday that the slow pace of the institutional abuse enquiry could mean that the first payments to the abused “will be funeral payments”.
in the seventies and eighties, Fr Brendan Smyth had the free run of Catholic care homes and schools across Belfast where he was a favourite of nuns who unwittingly allowed him access to pupils. After church authorities were aware Smyth was a pedophile, he moved into Nazareth Lodge even though he had no formal role in the institution.
“He raped and abused hundreds of children here, in Britain and in the US,” said Sam Adair. “The irony is that this inquiry isn’t bringing us any new information because the state and the church knew about the activities of priests like Brendan Smyth since the fifties when the records show the perpetrators were moved south of the border by their orders. The police knew all about this but claimed they could do nothing once the abusers were moved out of the jurisdiction.”
Former Archbishop Sean Brady was embroiled in the Smyth scandal when it emerged he had been among three priests who were informed in 1975 by victim Brendan Boland that he had been abused by the serial rapist while aged 11. Smyth went on to abuse dozens more victims after Brendan Boland was sworn to silence by the church enquiry.
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.