About a month into the Garda investigation, Bishop Comiskey supplied gardai with the name of a young man from outside Co Wexford who had made contact with him in 1986 regarding Fortune.

Two years prior to that contact, the young man had been in Fethard on a retreat at the invitation of the priest. The group were members of a youth group, and on the day of their arrival they had been discussing problems associated with that group when Fortune turned up to say hello.

They told him of their difficulties, and with his usual disrespect for the truth, he said he was the best person to help them because he had held "important positions" at Maynooth where he had dealt with this sort of thing all the time.

Afterwards he told the small group that he would gladly spend some time chatting to anyone with a personal problem. Questioning young men on this kind of topic was a favourite pastime of Fortune's, but the young man in question, who at that time was indeed unsure of his sexuality, was not to know this.

When the priest put it to him that he thought he suffered from a "sexual problem", he confided that it was true. Fortune responded by telling him that he had been spiritual director to a gay group in Maynooth and could help him. Afterwards he singled out the young man and, saying that they needed to talk more, invited him back to his house to stay the night. Once they arrived there Fortune manoeuvred it so that the pair of them ended up in bed together. The priest immediately began to make advances which culminated in his buggering the young man.

When he became upset, the priest told him not to worry, that although he may not have realised, it was what he had wanted all the time and that with time it would get better. He then told him to go into the spare bedroom because his housekeeper would be arriving shortly and it would not look good if she saw them both in bed together.

The young man suffered a lot of distress after the incident and eventually confided in a friend, who made contact with Bishop Comiskey. The bishop met with the young man in his home town in December 1986.

Dr Comiskey, he said, asked him to go into the detail of the abuse and took notes during the meeting, which lasted for about an hour. Afterwards he told him that Fr Fortune had been relieved of his duties and was convalescing at a retreat house somewhere in the country. The unhappy young man said he was thinking about going to England. Dr Comiskey, he said, told him this was not a bad idea as he obviously needed a break. Two weeks later, he emigrated.