NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
By Kevin Sharkey
BBC News NI
The paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth wrote an angry letter from prison, criticising his Church and the media over their response to his conviction.
The letter emerged at the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.
Smyth castigated a former leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland – the then Bishop Cathal Daly – for stating that his case had damaged the Church.
The serial child abuser’s letter also blamed the media for creating an atmosphere of “shame” over his crimes.
The HIA inquiry, which is being held in Banbridge courthouse, County Down, is examining child abuse allegations in church, state and voluntary children’s residential institutions dating back to 1922, but has set aside a dedicated module on the case of the late Brendan Smyth.
Writing from his cell in Magilligan prison in 1994, Smyth said that he wanted to express his “anger and disbelief” that Cathal Daly had said his case had “done severe damage” to the Catholic Church.
Describing the then Bishop Daly as “lofty and intellectual”, the convicted child abuser went on to blame the media.
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