Church guilty of injustice to accused priests

THE Catholic Church is compounding injustice by forcing priests at the centre of child sex abuse allegations to stand down, it was claimed yesterday.

Nuala O’Loan, Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, told a conference that innocent clerics were being tarred with the same brush as abusers. And she insisted accused priests were left with a cloud of suspicion hanging over them for the rest of their lives.

“Effectively he (a priest) is condemned immediately in the eyes of the public. If a criminal investigation finds nothing - what happens?” she asked.