Brendan Smyth: I have been at peace with God

Paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth found peace with god, an inquiry has been told. In a letter written in 1995 after his conviction for sexually assaulting more than 40 children in the North, the west Belfast-born priest said he hoped his victims could also find solace. He had lashed out at the media for adding to their distress.

Smyth, who died in jail in 1997, wrote: “I have welcomed the prison sentences imposed by the courts as a fitting means of paying my debt to society.

“I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep sorrow to anyone who has in any way suffered as a result of my actions and also to those relatives, friends and members of my religious community who suffered because of the media treatment of these matters for a long time now.

“I have been at peace with my god and I trust they too will find a similar peace.”

The letter was among many documents produced to Northern Ireland’s long running Historical Abuse Inquiry, which is examining whether systemic failings allowed Smyth — a member of the Norbertine order — to perpetrate the abuse between the 1960s and 1990s.

Retired judge Anthony Hart is leading the inquiry’s probe, one of the UK’s largest inquiries into physical, sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church, state and voluntary organisations.

In another letter, written from his cell at Magilligan prison in Co Derry to former Catholic primate Cathal Daly in December 1994, Smyth denied causing damage to the Catholic Church.

He said he had only admitted “wildly exaggerated” and “false” allegations to spare the reputation of the church. “Whatever my sins and failings, and there are many of them, it is not they but the media reporting of them which has created an atmosphere of mixed shame and embarrassment.

“I pleaded guilty to wildly exaggerated and in some cases false allegations to try to limit the media coverage. In that I admit I failed dismally,” he said.

Despite complaints made to the church authorities from the 1960s onwards, Smyth was not reported to police until the 1990s. Instead, he was moved between parishes, dioceses and even countries where he preyed on victims.

Joseph Aiken, counsel for the inquiry, said: “Today, the type of failure we are looking at would lead to a veritable storm. The panel will want to consider whether there can there be any justification for the chronology that I have just laid out, because the inevitable consequence was that not one of the children in the children’s homes we have been looking at in the inquiry would have been abused if the opportunities presented to deal with Smyth’s behaviour, had been taken.”