ITALY
Irish Independent
Catherine Deveney
PUBLISHED
17/07/2016
A British man who travelled to Verona in an attempt to forgive the Catholic missionary who sexually abused him at Mirfield seminary in Yorkshire almost 50 years ago, is being prosecuted in the Italian courts on three counts of “trespassing, stalking and interference in private life”.
Mark Murray (60), who filmed his encounter with Fr Romano Nardo at the Verona headquarters of the Comboni missionaries in April last year, said he was “appalled and disgusted” when a letter summoning him for criminal proceedings in Verona on September 14 arrived last week at his home in Wales.
“The Combonis know these ‘crimes’ are not true. They are trying to intimidate me,” he said. “It’s all about power and control. They are trying to send out a message, ‘Don’t dare take us on’.”
In 2014, the Observer reported exclusively on widespread abuse at Mirfield in the 1960s and 70s after a group of 11 British men settled out of court with the missionary order, receiving sums of between £7,000 and £30,000.
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