WATCHDOG TO PROBE COPS OVER CLAIMS OF ‘IGNORED’ SEX ABUSE

Victims issue complaint over pervert priest case

VICTIMS of a priest accused of child rape have complained to the Police Ombudsman that their claims were ignored.

Details emerged after Spotlight broadcast harrowing details of how Fr Malachy Finnegan preyed on youngsters in his car and the parochial house in Hilltown, Co Down.

It is understood a number of people who said they were abused by the paedophile priest have now made a detailed group complaint to the watchdog.

They are claiming there was a failure to investigate the priest in the 1990s when he was still alive.

Finnegan, who died in 2002, is accused of having abused 12 people.

Sean Faloon revealed he was targeted by the priest in the mid1990s and later informed police.

He told the BBC investigation he was groomed and abused by the pervert and lost his virginity at the age of 11 in his car, adding the monster then told him, “You’re a man now”.

The victim said after the incident in the vehicle “the grin on his [Finnegan’s] face went from ear to ear” and it “very quickly went from touching me up in his car to going up to his bed” in the parochial house.

Spotlight also reported Finnegan was sent to a centre in England for treating paedophile priests around two months after the story of notorious child molester Fr Brendan Smyth broke.

The programme found six months later, in the summer of 1995, he was brought back to Northern Ireland.

It is claimed two days later he raped Mr Faloon who said he spoke to the police in 1996, but did not feel able to make a formal complaint.

Victims claim the PSNI failed to interview the priest.

The police admitted they did receive a report of historical abuse.

Finnegan’s reign of terror is understood to have lasted through the late 60s, 70s, 80s and 1990s.

It has now emerged a number of people in Hilltown are refusing to set foot in the parochial house.

Those attending Mass on Saturday night were told the parish

ON BBC SPOTLIGHT

priest will no longer be staying there.

Spotlight also reported the GAA in Hilltown is advising anyone abused by Finnegan to go to police.

The priest was involved with juvenile teams in the late 1980s and into the 1990s.

Finnegan, a former teacher, worked in St Colman’s College in Newry from 1967 to 1976 and was later the president of the school.

The school began to remove the pervert’s image from its photographs last year.

That decision was taken in October when the Board of Governors, who issued a statement condemning the abuse, were informed the Diocese of Dromore had reached a settlement with one of the victims.

The diocese said it was aware of 12 allegations against the priest. Finnegan was never prosecuted for sexual abuse, but allegations against him were reviewed by the National Board for Safeguarding Children – a clerical abuse watchdog set up by the Catholic

Church.

SICK Fr Brendan Smyth