‘I should have gone straight to the gardaí’

THE report deals with one of only two cases where the complaint was made concerning a person who was still a child.

‘Fr Flan’, a curate in Mallow, admitted to Monsignor O’Callaghan, who was his parish priest, that he had a relationship with a 16-year-old girl, after which his activities were restricted. However, no investigation was carried out and Bishop Magee was not informed.

It was only when Fr Flan later eloped with a married woman that he was suspended from priestly duties.

Mgr O’Callaghan told the commission that in hindsight he “should have gone straight to the gardaí”.

Fr Flan was appointed a curate in Mallow in 1998 where Mgr O’Callaghan was his parish priest. It was while he was there that complaints about his behaviour began to surface.

Fr Flan was involved in a number of relationships with women. In a letter to Bishop Magee in 2004, Mgr O’Callaghan said that he had been a paternal figure to Fr Flan and had got him “out of serious trouble on the sexual score on four or five occasions”.

The commission is aware of one complaint of child sexual abuse against Fr Flan.

Initially, there were general complaints that Fr Flan was spending time away from the parish, staying outside the parish overnight.