US law firm plans ad blitz to find paedophile
The subject of the 2006 Oscar-nominated film Deliver Us, O’Grady, 61, has admitted molesting up to 25 children while a parish priest in California. Church authorities there have been accused of masking his activity by continually moving him from parish to parish. However, his crimes caught up with him and he served seven years in a US jail for molesting two brothers.
O’Grady was deported to Ireland in 2001 on condition that he abide by strict child abuse prevention measures. However, while he is on the sex offender’s register here, his exact location is not known. During the film he was shown leering at children in a Dublin school before admitting that he was still aroused by children.
California-based law firm Manly, McGuire and Stewart are looking for information on his whereabouts and are placing adverts in newspapers seeking information. The priest was last reported to be living in Phibsboro, but the US lawyers cannot find him.
They say they have enough evidence for more civil actions against him, and two new male victims in their 20s have alleged abuse by him.
During a videotaped deposition as part of a lawsuit raised by some of his victims he described intricately how he would try to gain the children’s confidence. He started off by hugging the child: “The hugging starts off and then I might just drop my hands, all the time looking for permission.
“If I wasn’t getting a resistance, that was allowing me to go further and further.”
He even said that he did not think his victims liked being sexual with him but, at times, they tolerated it. “If children were dressing or undressing after having a swim or something like that, there might be indications that I might interpret as a sort of flirtatious action.”
O’Grady was educated by the Christian Brothers in Limerick city and then went to a seminary in Thurles.
He was defrocked and laicised while in prison in California.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
