Almost 25 years after complaints were first made, disgraced priest was finally locked up

EARLY 1970S Complaints are made to former Bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, about Brendan Smyth.

1973 In a letter to an officer at Finglas Garda station dated November 1, Smyth’s psychiatrist said he was recommending the cleric be admitted for treatment.

1974 The Vatican is put on notice regarding Smyth’s abuses and a doctor at St Patrick’s confirms a diagnosis of paedophilia.

1975 A canonical tribunal hearing is held into the allegations against Smyth. The notary is former archbishop of Armagh Seán Brady.

1991 Smyth is arrested in the North. He flees to the South and remains on the run for three years.

1994 Smyth is convicted of 141 counts of child molestation in the North and the Republic. He is sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.

1997 Smyth dies of a heart attack in prison at the Curragh in Co. Kildare.

JUNE 22, 2015 The North’s Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry heard that the paedophile priest admitted that he could have sexually abused more than 200 children during his time in religious life. After his arrest in 1994 he told a doctor that he may have abused more than 200 children. He admitted 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 1940s to the early 1990s.