No end in sight for HSE investigation into ‘Netflix priest’
The HSE has again refused to offer any timeframe for the completion of a long-running investigation into the activities of a US priest at the centre of a Netflix true-crime documentary.
Fr James Maskell was the prime suspect in the unsolved murder of Catholic nun and school teacher Sr Cathy Cesnik in Baltimore, in 1969.
The case was the subject of a seven-part seven-part Netflix documentary, The Keepers.
Authorities believe Maskell killed the nun after she became aware of allegations that he had sexually abused girls at the Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. (Sr Cesnik taught there.)
The priest fled to Wexford in 1994, after a victim said that while she was a student, he had taken her to see Sr Cesnik’s body and told her: “You see what happens when you say bad things about people?”
The following year, he took up a position as a psychologist for the South Eastern Health Board, in Wexford Community Care, for six months. He worked in private practice in the county from 1995 to 1998.
Maskell subsequently returned to the US, where he died in 2001.
After the huge publicity generated by the documentary, the HSE announced, in June 2017, an investigation into “any concerns arising from the temporary, short-term employment” of Maskell in 1995.
However, the investigation is now into its third year and the HSE is unwilling to provide any timeline for completion.
When the Irish Examiner asked about the investigation, the HSE reissued a short press statement it had provided in April.
“Various phases of an examination process have been undertaken. As a step in this process, and with due regard to the terms of reference for this review, an independent company was appointed, following a procurement process in line with national guidelines,” said the statement.
The HSE has repeatedly declined to say when the investigation would be completed and said it would not be appropriate to make any further comment, “pending completion of the review”.
It has also declined to name the independent company.
Abbie Schaub and Gemma Hoskins, two former students of Sr Cesnik, are at the centre of the Netflix documentary, having spent years investigating their former teacher’s murder.
Ms Schaub reiterated her frustration that the HSE has declined to release any documentation to her, under the Freedom of Information Act, in relation to how Maskell was hired by the Eastern Health Board in 1995.
“Fr Maskell’s employment, working with youngsters for the Irish health board, after he fled a trial for sexual abuse of minors in America, is cause for public concern. If there were problems in the background check system, these should be discussed and corrected.”
