ENGLAND
BBC News
June 5, 2018
The gravestone of a senior Roman Catholic priest has been destroyed following allegations he abused a boy.
Canon Dermod Fogarty, who died in 2012, is accused by Stephen Bernard in a book written by the Oxford academic.
Dr Bernard says the four years of abuse started in 1987 when he was 11 years old.
Deirdre McCormack, the canon’s next of kin, called for the stone’s removal as she felt the epitaph to a “much-loved, wise priest” was a “blatant lie”.
The Church agreed to remove the stone following a meeting with Ms McCormack and in a statement said it would replace it with a simple headstone.
Ms McCormack arranged for the destruction of the headstone to be filmed and asked for it to be broadcast.
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