Gardaí ‘were told of Smyth’s abuse as far back as early 70s’
Historical inquiry told that paedophile priest came to attention of force in 1973
GARDAÍ knew about the activities of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth as far back as the early Seventies, an inquiry has heard.
Confidential documents from a Dublin psychiatric hospital have revealed that Smyth, who went on to abuse hundreds of children over four decades, had asked to be admitted after coming to the attention of gardaí in 1973.
The documents were revealed at the North’s Historical Abuse Inquiry yesterday. Joseph Aiken, counsel for the inquiry, said: ‘For some reason Brendan Smyth has asked the doctor looking after him to write a letter to Finglas Garda station to say that he is going to be taken in for some inpatient treatment.’
Smyth had been conducting a retreat in Finglas, Dublin, in July 1973.
The documents also show how Smyth was officially diagnosed as a paedophile in 1974. The hearing was delayed for several hours yesterday because the medical notes, which the Norbertine order had been trying to obtain for many years, were only released from St Patrick’s Hospital earlier in the day.
In a letter to a garda at Finglas Garda station dated November 1, 1973, Smyth’s psychiatrist said he was recommending the cleric be admitted for treatment.
The doctor said: ‘I have been asked to write to you by Fr Brendan Smyth of Holy Trinity Abbey, Kilnacrott.
‘He has been a patient under my care for some months and I am familiar with the nature of his problems. I am writing to his superior suggesting that he should have a period of inpatient care in St Patrick’s Hospital or in St Edmundsbury. I hope this arrangement will be satisfactory to you and your superiors.’
According to a case summary dated February 1974, a doctor at St Patrick’s confirmed a diagnosis of paedophilia. The note read: ‘Psychosexual difficulties for many years. First developed in the Novitiate. A recurring problem no matter where he has been stationed. His paedophilia has brought him into contact with the police.’
Smyth, originally from west Belfast but who was based at Kilnacrott Abbey in Co. Cavan, was convicted of sexually assaulting more than 40 children in the North in 1994.
But he told a treating doctor that the true number of victims could have run into the hundreds.
The HIA, which is sitting in Banbridge Courthouse, Co. Down, is examining whether systemic failings enabled Smyth to continue his offending for so long.
An Garda Síochána said yesterday that it was cooperating with the abuse inquiry. A spokesman said it would not be appropriate to comment while the inquiry is ongoing.
However, a victim of Smyth has said it is appalling if it is true that gardaí were made aware about him from the early Seventies.
Loreto Martin, who was 13 years old in 1975 when Smyth started to rape and abuse her, was speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News.
Ms Martin, who suffered the abuse for five years, said: ‘On a good day, I was just raped. On a bad day I was raped and pictures were taken. It’s extremely difficult to manage but a lot of it is choice. I choose to go under or I choose to get up and try and make a difference but that’s because I have the support network I have. There’s a lot of people out there who do not have that opportunity.’
Elsewhere, Maeve Lewis of abuse victim charity One In Four told the programme said that there could be hundreds of other victims of Smyth, who have not yet come forward.
She said: ‘Brendan Smyth went on a rampage for 40 years and there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of children who were sexually abused here in Ireland and also in the USA.’
She added that if people in authority had acted at the time, many people’s lives would have been different. ‘We have always known people in the Church knew, we have always known medical people knew and perhaps people in the State knew.
‘And today we hear that the gardaí actually knew as far back as the 1970s. We have met lots of people who were abused in the Seventies and Eighties whose lives would have been so different if only somebody had acted. So today is reminding us yet again what happens when people are treated with deference
‘Psychosexual difficulties’ ‘Perhaps people in the State knew’
because of who they are and are not held accountable for their actions.’
On Monday the HIA inquiry heard that Smyth said he could have abused more than 200 children.
Mr Aiken said Smyth admitted that over his years in religious life that he could have sexually abused ‘50 to 100 children’ and that ‘number could even be double or perhaps even more’. The abuse is believed to have taken place from the late Forties to the early Nineties.