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.