Plea deal for dead priest's attacker

THE close friends of an Irish priest who died after a savage attack in his parish church in Florida, spoke of their sadness yesterday as it emerged that the woman responsible for his death had been granted a plea bargain.

Father Oliver Barrett, 81, originally from Kinsale, Co Cork, died at home in Ireland 11 months after he was beaten brutally with a concrete brick in the attack at St Anne’s Catholic Church in Brownsville, Florida.

Delta Sue Allen, 34, had been charged with murder, but Florida’s Chief Circuit Judge John Kuder accepted a plea deal yesterday.

Allen could still, however, face 14 to 40 years' jail.

Father Barrett's lifelong friend, Fr John Gannon, 80, said yesterday: “I’m very sad about the whole thing.”

Friend Jackie White said she was concerned for the 55 or so families who

attended Fr Barrett’s church.

“They loved him so much and he was such a humble servant to them,” she said.