UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet
09 April 2015 by Joanna Moorhead
The Diocese of East Anglia is to commission an independent review into the circumstances surrounding the deployment of a priest who has been jailed for three years for abusing a boy at a children’s home.
Fr Anthony McSweeney’s crimes occurred between 1979 and 1981 although he was not arrested until two years ago when he was parish priest of St George’s Church in Norwich. The 68-year-old cleric, who will now be laicised, is a one-time chaplain at Norwich City FC.
During his trial Southwark Crown Court was told that he watched as care home manager John Stingemore carried out acts of abuse against a 15-year-old boy.
Stingemore, who died before he could be tried, was eventually dismissed after the authorities learned he had taken indecent photographs of children in his care, and at this point McSweeney – by now an ordained priest working in the Diocese of Brentwood – dropped all contact with him.
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