Priest is branded ‘a coward’

AN Irish priest wanted by police in the US over child sex abuse charges has been branded “a coward” by his alleged victim.

Monsignor Patrick O'Keeffe, 68, who was dismissed from the priesthood in 1994, left his home in California last July to return to Ireland just days before a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The Kilkenny-born cleric is wanted on 15 charges over claims that he repeatedly forced a teenager to engage in oral sex when serving in a parish near Los Angeles over 30 years ago.

Although the Archdiocese of Dublin was notified last November that O'Keeffe is now living in Ireland, a spokesperson for Cardinal Desmond Connell said he had no jurisdiction over the priest. The spokesman confirmed that the archdiocese had notified the gardaí of O'Keeffe's presence in Ireland when they became aware of it. However, he said he was unaware of any attempt by the archdiocese to contact O'Keeffe directly.

Church sources have indicated that senior clergy have often approached other priests who returned to Ireland from the US following allegations of child sex abuse.

"It would be brilliant if they could convince O'Keeffe to go back to the US," said his alleged victim, Nicki Rister, yesterday.

Ms Rister, 48, from Kremmling, Colorado, said: "I am furious that this coward is free."

The offences committed by O'Keeffe are alleged to have occurred between January and June 1972 when he was serving as a priest in St Adelaide Catholic Church in Highland a town 70 miles east of Los Angeles.

Ms Rister claims the abuse began after O'Keeffe asked her to stay behind after choir practice at the church. He would also phone her parents and ask them to send their daughter down to visit him.

"He made it very difficult to tell anyone. He was such a personable man and would often tell me how much he loved me," said Ms Rister. She claimed the abuse only stopped after she graduated from high school and left Highland.

"It is very irritating to me that he is free as long as he is in Ireland because he will never leave there. This just makes it worse for all his victims, including myself," said Ms Rister.

"He is not man enough to step forward and admit what he did was wrong. He is still hiding behind the Church as far as I am concerned because they allowed him time to pack up and leave. If he is a real priest, he would be big enough to own up to his mistakes."

Although she made a formal complaint to O'Keeffe's superior in 1989, the Bishop of San Bernardino decided to handle the matter internally.

O'Keeffe only came to the attention of police in California after Ms Rister reported the matter last year.

Ms Rister says she was unable to report her claims to the police authorities until after the death of her father because neither of her parents knew of the abuse.

"It would have killed my dad because he was ordained a priest after my mother's death and he was very close to Pat (O'Keeffe)," she said.