WHISTLEBLOWER:A RETIRED GARDA from Valleymount, Co Wicklow, has spoken out about the threats he received after attempting to investigate reports of child abuse by the local curate in the early 1980s.
Former Det Sgt John Brennan received abusive letters, sometimes containing excrement, after reporting suspicious behaviour by Fr Thomas Naughton to the Valleymount parish priest.
On RTÉ's Morning Irelandyesterday, Mr Brennan said he told the parish priest about the curate, but was initially met with a light-hearted response. "A big ha-ha laugh was my first reaction from him." The parish priest asked: "Is he [Fr Naughton] a homo or something?"
Det Sgt Brennan was approached by two women shortly after Fr Naughton arrived. They told him they were concerned that the priest was abusing their children.
“I tried to get evidence first; I didn’t want to go on hearsay,” Mr Brennan said. “My own son was an altar boy at the time . . . he hadn’t interfered with him, but I stopped my son from serving Mass until the thing was sorted out. My only option was to report it to the parish priest, which I did.”
He warned he would treat the matter more seriously if the allegations were ignored. “I told him . . . if he wasn’t prepared to deal with the matter seriously, I would take it to a higher level and possible Garda action,” he said. “He took me seriously from thereon in.”
Shortly afterwards, the curate was removed from Valleymount. It was then Det Sgt Brennan and his family began receiving hate mail.
“They were in an uneducated person’s writing. I took the letters to a handwriting expert and he told me they were written by educated hand and very disguised.”
Det Sgt Brennan later received a letter of apology from Cardinal Desmond Connell.