Priest accused of child sex abuse surrenders in US

A FORMER Irish priest accused of sexually assaulting six boys here between 1973 to 1981 has turned himself into the authorities in the US where he had been living in a plush waterfront suburb.

Patrick Joseph McCabe faces 10 counts of allegedly assaulting boys who are understood to have been aged under 14 years at the time of the abuse.

According to media reports in the US, McCabe, a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese from 1961 to 1983, was the subject of an extradition request filed by lawyers with the US Attorney’s Office in federal court in San Francisco last month.

After voluntarily surrendering himself to authorities on July 30, he was initially placed under house arrest, but was then ordered to be held in custody in US jail.

It is understood the 74-year-old was first accused of abuse by police in 1988 and he left the priesthood that year. However, there are allegations that Irish church authorities knew about the abuse years earlier and he was sent to the US to receive treatment in a programme for sexual abusers.

While there he served in a number of diocese but then returned to Ireland. In 1986 it is understood he was accused of abusing a nine-year-old boy whose parents went to the police. However, that investigation was dropped.

In 1988, it is understood he again left Ireland and effectively disappeared from the radar of authorities here until he was tracked down to the waterfront US suburb of Alameda in 2003.

No date has been set for hearings on the extradition request, but McCabe is due to return to court on September 2 for a status conference. His lawyers are appealing his detention in custody on the grounds of ill health, including diabetes and heart problems.