Monsignor dismissed admissions as cases of ‘over-familiarity’

A PARISH priest admitted abusing three children for a number of years and when he was younger, he said fondled up to six girls.

But after interviewing the man, named in the report as Fr Corin, in January 1995, Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan dismissed the admissions as cases of “over-familiarity” and judged that there was “no evidence of sex abuse”.

The commission said it could not understand how Msgr O’Callaghan could come to such a conclusion. It said it was “clearly and unequivocally child sexual abuse”.