NEWRY (UNITED KINGDOM)
Belfast Live [Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom]
August 22, 2023
By Gráinne Ní Aodha
“He has had a very traumatic journey to get to this point in his life.”
A 51-year-old Co Down man who was abused by the notorious paedophile priest Malachy Finnegan has received a settlement of £400,000, lawyers have said.
Finnegan is alleged to have sexually abused children in the Catholic diocese of Dromore across four decades before his death in 2002.
KRW Law, acting on behalf of the victim who wished to remain anonymous, said he had been abused over a three-year period in the mid 1980s when he was a student at St Colman’s College in Newry.
Owen Winters of KRW Law’s historical abuse redress department said that the details of this case and of “the suffering endured by this man reached a new level of depravity”.
“The repeated abuse by Finnegan included rape during school hours,” he said.
Proceedings were issued in the High Court against the Diocese of Dromore alleging assault, battery and trespass to the person.
The case had been due for hearing later this year, but KRW Law said that “after intensive discussions and negotiations, the parties reached a resolution” earlier this month.
The case was settled without any admission of liability.
The law firm said the sum is understood to be the largest to date for a victim of abuse by Finnegan.
Mr Winters said of the victim: “He has had a very traumatic journey to get to this point in his life.
“He has chosen to keep his anonymity but at some point when the time is right he may think about going public on his plight.
“That is a deeply personal decision and given the ordeal he was put through as a child he needs some time and space to make that decision.
“He recognises the need to guard against complacency when it comes to exposing historic clerical abuse and for the wider community to be reminded about just how awful it is for Finnegan to have escaped detection and prosecution.”
The Catholic diocese of Dromore, which includes parts of counties Antrim, Down and Armagh, had set up a redress scheme in 2021 for victims of child abuse committed by clerics under its authority, capped at £80,000 per individual.
Fifteen victims have secured damages in legal settlements with the diocese totalling about £2 million.
In the past 35 years, about 70 people have come forward to make allegations of abuse related to the diocese, the majority of which relate to Malachy Finnegan.
In 2018, former Irish president Mary McAleese disclosed that her youngest brother was “seriously, physically, sadistically” abused by Finnegan throughout his seven years at St Colman’s College.
The Diocese of Dromore has been contacted for comment.