Priest who allegedly abused girls in US currently housed in Ireland

A PRIEST who allegedly molested two young girls as well as a number of other people in the United States in the 1980s is currently being housed by a Catholic Order in a Dublin suburb where he is not allowed unsupervised contact with the general public.

Confidential church files released by court order in the US have shown how Reverend John Howlett allegedly fondled two young girls around 1984.

He is one of six priests who worked in the Fort Worth diocese where the claims of sexual abuse was not made public. The acts are understood to have taken place while Bishop Joseph P Delaney was in charge at the diocese. Bishop Delaney has since died.