CIVIL ACTIONS by two Californian men have been initiated there against former Dublin Catholic priest Patrick Joseph McCabe (74) who is already the subject of 10 warrants issued in the Irish courts for his extradition.
He was remanded in custody in California this month pending the full extradition hearing which is likely to take place this autumn.
One of the civil cases in California claims that Mr McCabe repeatedly molested a then 11-year-old boy at a parish at Eureka, California around 1983.
The crimes allegedly took place “almost weekly for nine to 12 months”, in the parish rectory. Last week, another California man began a similar action claiming that Mr McCabe repeatedly molested a then nine-year-old boy in 1984-85 at the same church.
That action claims: “The Archdiocese of Dublin sent McCabe to the United States in May 1982 after receiving complaints of sexual abuse from young boys and concerns about his sexual impulses, for which he was given drug therapies including Depo-Provera.” It claims Dublin’s Archbishop (Dermot Ryan) “spoke with Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa Rosa to allow McCabe to serve as a priest . . . in Eureka” and “Hurley transferred McCabe from St Bernard’s Church to St Elizabeth’s Church in Guerneville in late 1985 after receiving a credible report of criminal child sexual abuse.”
