‘Lack of awareness of suffering of victims’

OF the 18 priests who have been accused of child sexual abuse in the diocese of Tuam since 1975, just two have been convicted.

The review into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) found the commitment to safeguarding children that is evident in the diocese today under Archbishop Michael Neary “appears not to have existed in previous years”.

It found many of the cases managed by the archbishop’s predecessors, Joseph Cunnane and Joseph Cassidy, contain practises that were “defensive and internally focused”, and entirely unacceptable today.