Irish priest flees US a day before giving abuse evidence

A priest has fled back to his native Ireland just a day before he was due to give evidence relating to abuse he was accused of inflicting upon an altar boy in the 1980s.

On Apr 6, Tipperary native Fr Michael Kelly was found “liable” of sexual misconduct against the boy in the Stockton diocese in California.

He is also separately under criminal investigation by authorities separately, where he is accused of molesting another altar boy in San Andreas in the early 2000s.

He could not be charged criminally with the first assault because his victim, now 37, recovered the memories of the abuse in 2006, which was past the statute of limitations for a criminal conviction.

The 62-year-old priest had been placed on administrative leave while the diocese was investigating an allegation that he sexually abused a boy sometime between 1984 and 1986.

The father of the victim had contacted the Church to say his son recalled being abused at about the age of 10.

Stockton is the diocese where another Irish priest, the notorious Oliver O’Grady, carried out his reign of abuse on a number of children.

Fr Kelly had been due to give evidence yesterday on the second phase of his sex abuse civil trial. That part of the trial is against the Bishop of Stockton, Stephen Blaire, and the Stockton diocese, over their handling of the complaint against the priest.

However, Bishop Blaire received a letter from Fr Kelly on Monday saying he was on his way back to Ireland, that he was suffering from “chronic bowel problems”, and that he was “physically and mentally spent” from the “vicious false allegations that had been spread about him over the last four-and-a-half years”.

He said he wanted to be with his family, “whose support and love for me is unconditional”.

His lawyer in the case, Thomas Beattie, said his client had lost a lot of weight in the last week and had said he wanted to die with his family.

Bishop Blaire said he was “stunned to receive the letter from Fr Kelly”.

“We notified opposing counsel in the civil trial as well as law enforcement authorities in Calaveras County, where a criminal investigation has been under way since September,” the Bishop said in a statement.

“I have tried to reach Fr Kelly by email and by phone to implore him to return and see the trial through to its completion.”