THE HIGH Court will deal with issues surrounding publication of chapter 19 of the Murphy report into clerical child sex abuse in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese on December 15th, this day week.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said that due to a misunderstanding there had been media reports that the court would deal yesterday with publication issues following the jailing on Monday of former priest Tony Walsh for the sexual abuse of three boys.
On October 15th, 2009, Mr Justice Gilligan ruled that chapter 19 of the report, which deals with abuse by Walsh, and contains 21 other references to him, should not be published pending the outcome of the court cases. The judge said yesterday that the court was acutely conscious of the position of victims and it should be made clear that it was never intended to deal with chapter 19 of the report until December 15th.
The court dealt yesterday with procedural matters to do with Murphy arising from separate and distinct orders, and these had to be dealt with in a private hearing, the judge said.
Walsh was sentenced to 16 years, with four suspended, on 17 counts of sexual abuse, including five counts of buggery on one boy. Welcoming this, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) yesterday said it concurred with victim “David” who felt while the sentences were “just and fair” they should run consecutively and not concurrently.
DRCC chief executive Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop said “the victims of Tony Walsh had to endure delay after delay which Walsh and his legal team employed to seek to quash the charges against him and postpone the trial”. She called for chapter 19 “to be published as soon as possible so that the victims and their families can get on with their lives”.
Meanwhile, it is understood that the Cloyne report on the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations in that diocese may not be published before the new year.
It will involve chapters on the 19 priests investigated, though one may be withheld due to court proceedings. The work of the Murphy Commission must be wound up by the end of this month.