UNITED KINGDOM
Echo
John Lucas, Reporter / @johnlucasNQE
CHURCH bosses failed to take action when concerns were raised about a paedophile priest who was later jailed for sexually abusing a boy at a care home, an independent review has found.
Perverted Anthony McSweeney was reported to the Diocese of Brentwood while serving as parish priest at St Peter’s Church, in Eastwood Road North, Leigh, in 1998.
A cleaner had stumbled on videotapes showing boys aged about 14 being sexually abused, but she was fobbed off when she tried to alert senior clergy.
Instead, it took until 2015 for the 70-year-old to be jailed for three years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy while working at the Grafton Children’s Home in Hounslow, London, between 1979 and 1981.
In the meantime, the Diocese of Brentwood transferred McSweeney to Norwich, part of the Diocese of East Anglia.
Both Diocese commissioned an independent safeguarding report into the scandal following the court case.
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