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Victim describes Diocesan audits as "a whitewash"

by Adrian Cusack  Updated: Wednesday, 7th December, 2011 5:30pm

A local resident who was abused while growing up in an orphanage run by nuns in Derry has described the release of six diocesan audits on child protection as "a whitewash."

John Meehan, a retired member of the Defence Forces who lives in Bealnamulla, claimed the fact that the reports were released in a cluster served to deflect attention away from individual dioceses.

He pointed out that the documents, which were prepared by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in Catholic Church (NBSCCC), had been sitting on the relevant Bishops' desks for weeks before being published.

Mr Meehan suffered physical and sexual abuse in the 1950s and early 1960s at the Termonbacca Boys' Home in Derry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

Mr Meehan "felt sorry" for younger priests who had to answer to bishops who had been in positions of power when child abuse occurred.

"Any nuns, priests or bishops whose actions impacted badly on any child should put up their hands and walk away. Anyone who knew of a child being abused and did nothing about it should go," he said.

He drew a contrast between the treatment of abuse victims and that of Fr Kevin Reynolds, who was libelled by RTE's Prime Time programme last May. Fr Reynolds' libel case was "done and dusted" in six months, but many victims of clerical abuse had been campaigning for decades.

Mr Meehan is a committee member of a group called Survivors And Victims of Institutional Abuse. Following calls from this group, the Northern Ireland Executive agreed to establish a public inquiry into alleged abuse in Catholic-run institutions.

It's understood that an independent judge is currently being selected to lead the inquiry, and this judge is expected to be in place by February.

The reports released last week examined safeguarding practices in six dioceses, including Ardagh and Clonmacnois. The report on Ardagh and Clonmacnois said abuse allegations were made against thirteen priests from the diocese between 1975 and 2011. The report praised the manner in which Bishop Colm O'Reilly dealt with abuse allegations. The NBSCCC said the reports last week did not "set out to provide a detailed analysis of past practice" but instead concentrated on "scrutinising the current situation."