Child abuser allowed to adopt
Paedophile lived with child until his death last year...and social services approved it
HEALTH authorities allowed a paedophile to adopt a child from abroad a year after he was first accused of child abuse, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The shocking decision is one of a dozen appalling cases of apparent HSE negligence brought to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar by a whistleblower when he was health minister in 2014.
Despite this attempted intervention with Mr Varadkar, the paedophile – who by then had served a prison sentence for child abuse – remained living with his adopted child until he died last year.
The paedophile was originally allowed to adopt the 18-month-old child in 1999 even though the then Health Board, along with the departments of health, justice and education, had been informed of allegations of child sexual abuse against him a year beforehand.
‘Abused at least four children in orphanage’
The allegations of abuse – detailed in High Court papers – relate to the paedophile’s employment in an orphanage in the 1970s where he was accused of abusing at least four children.
Astonishingly, the paedophile was allowed to remain living with his adopted child even as the authorities made secret Redress Board settlements with his victims.
The man – a one-time trainee priest – then remained living with his adopted child even as the HSE reached a separate, sixfigure High Court settlement with one orphanage victim in 2006.
Nothing changed even after the paedophile was accused of abusing a 10-year-old child he had previously taught at home. That case saw him arrested in 2003, charged in 2005 and finally jailed in 2012.
Once released from prison the man was allowed to return to live with the adopted child now in their mid-teens.
He remained in a position of care over the child until he died a year ago.
The MoS has confirmed all of the above with documentary evidence and court records. However, we have decided to withhold the identity of the paedophile to protect his adopted child and wife.
The whistleblower who disclosed the matter to Mr Varadkar in 2014 tried to overturn the adoption when he first became aware of the abuse concerns in 2003.
‘I have been raising my concerns for this child’s welfare for over 10 years without success,’ he wrote.
‘I wanted to rescind the adoption, so the child could be placed with another adoptive family and I appealed to a senior manager for help but got no response,’ the whistleblower’s disclosure to Mr Varadkar reads.
However, the social worker’s efforts to protect the child were hampered when the paedophile made complaints against him to gardaí and the HSE – and launched a campaign of online abuse against the whistleblower.
During the resulting internal inquiries, the whistleblower claims he was asked to change his notes by HSE superiors to help cover up the scandal.
Ultimately the whistleblower, who also exposed the Grace case scandal, was hounded from the HSE and is now working abroad.