Labour call for probe into hushing-up of abuse

THE gardaí should investigate Cardinal Seán Brady’s involvement in the hushing-up of paedophilia in the Catholic Church, Labour last night insisted.

The move added to pressure on the head of the Irish Church to resign over his role in a 1975 canonical inquiry into child sex abuser, Fr Brendan Smyth.

Labour’s social and family affairs spokeswoman, Roisín Shortall, said the party believed the cardinal had contravened the Offences against the State Act, 1939, and gardaí should probe his role in the church inquiry to see if criminal proceedings were necessary.