‘Nobody is guilty until they’re proved guilty’

THE Irish Mail on Sunday confronted Brother Aidan Clohessy before Christmas to confirm he was the individual referred to as Brother D in an audit of child abuse cases at St John of God.

Brother D was by far the most prolific alleged abuser of all St John of God order members in Ireland.

The MoS knew from painstaking research that Brother D was Brother Aidan, but for legal and ethical reasons we offered him an opportunity to respond.

‘You are Brother D. I don’t need to beat about the bush when I say that. You know who I mean by Brother D,’ this reporter told him.

There was a brief pause – and then he answered. ‘Yes, yes, I know, yeah.’ But Brother Aidan didn’t really want to talk about the 20 allegations of child sexual abuse he has faced in the past three decades.

Asked about the allegations against him, Brother Aidan said: ‘As I denied it all in the past, I’ll deny it again. It’s not… It didn’t happen. All of those have been fully investigated by the police and there’s no charges of any kind. I don’t think anybody is guilty until they’re proved guilty… Innocent until proven guilty.’

Brother Aidan also denied collecting street children and bringing them to his home in Malawi as the MoS had been told repeatedly when staff travelled to Africa to investigate his activities there. ‘I didn’t pick anybody off the streets in Malawi. We have a programme to provide for people who needed help,’ he said.

Some of those who made allegations against Brother Aidan in Ireland got financial settlements from the Redress Board but he declined to comment about this when asked. ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘I wouldn’t know about the settlements.’

In fairness, he may not have: they happened when he was in Malawi.