UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Victims of paedophile priests at Catholic seminary in Yorkshire speak of horrendous 1960s abuse as British police plead with Italian forces to extradite the last living cleric for questioning
By JENNIFER SMITH FOR MAILONLINE
The victims of paedophile priests who sexually assaulted them as young boys in a Catholic seminary have spoken out against their abusers forty years after leaving the religious Order.
The men, most of whom are now in their sixties, were given sums of money by Comboni Missionaries – formerly known as the Verona Fathers – in October last year following a lengthy civil court case.
While two of their abusers are dead, another alleged assailant is still alive and living out his final days in the Order’s Mother House in Verona.
West Yorkshire Police have implored him to return to the UK for questioning but Italian authorities have deemed him unfit to travel.
Despite compensating each of the men, Comboni Missionaries did not accept last month that all had been abused and rejected the claim that sexual assault was embedded in its culture.
Now, 40 years after leaving Mirfield Junior Seminary in Yorkshire, the men have waived their right to anonymity to tell of the depraved abuse they fell victim to.
Gerry McLaughlin, who now lives in Ireland, was taken to Mirfield in 1964 at the age of 11.
‘I’d just turned 11 in June. A priest came round the school and gave a talk, there may have been slides,’ he told MailOnline.
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