A BBC Spotlight programme will tonight state that the Catholic Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, was told in 1995 about complaints of child sexual abuse against a priest, yet this same priest remained in active ministry until 1998, when a Garda investigation began.
The programme will also report that on at least four other occasions, dating back to 1971, senior priests in the same diocese were made aware of allegations or complaints against Father Eugene Greene (73), but that nothing of these has been recorded in diocesan files.
Father Greene was jailed for 12 years at Donegal Circuit Court in 2000 when he pleaded guilty to 41 sample charges of sexual assault against 26 children in Donegal parishes between 1965 and 1982. He had been charged on over 100 counts. The trial heard that many of his victims were altar boys, who suffered repeated assault and buggery. Last year, Father Greene sought a reduction in his sentence at the Court of Criminal Appeal on the grounds of advanced age and a drink problem. The appeal was dismissed.
The TV programme, entitled Sins of Omission, produced by Marie Irvine and featuring reporting by Darragh McIntyre, will be on BBC 1 at 10.35 tonight.
The programme has confirmed that, on November 26th 1995, Bishop Boyce met the parish priest of Annagry, Father Michael Herrity, and the local primary school principal, at their request, to discuss the volume of rumours and allegations circulating in the diocese about Father Greene. The priest was then assistant to Father Herrity.
Bishop Boyce has confirmed this meeting to the programme. He said that, subsequent to it, he had conducted his own inquiry in two previous parishes where Father Greene had ministered, but found no complaints had been made in either parish against the priest, nor were there any records of complaints in the diocesan files.
The programme will also report that Father Greene attended the Our Lady of Victories centre at Stroud in Britain for four months from August 1992. Clerical child sexual offenders are sent there for treatment, as also are those suffering from alcoholism. A former patient was Father Brendan Smyth, who died in 1997 while serving a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty to 74 charges of sexual assault against children.
The current Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, who was Bishop of Raphoe from 1982 to 1994, told the programme that Father Greene was sent to Stroud because of his alcoholism. He also said he was unaware while he was bishop of the diocese of any allegations of sexual abuse against the priest.
Father Greene, a native of the Annagry parish in Co Donegal, had served 10 years with the Kiltegan Fathers in Nigeria when he returned to Ireland in 1965. He then served in Scotland and Cork. In 1970, he was curate in Gweedore. Thereafter, he served in Killybegs, Lettermacaward, Gorthahork [where, between 1976 and 1981, he abused 16 boys\], Glenties, Kilmacrennan and Annagry. His abuse came to light when he reported a man for trying to blackmail him. In the investigation, gardaí uncovered the abuse.