Cardinal’s response to claims were ‘inadequate’

Canon law expert Thomas Doyle has criticised the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland for his failure to investigate allegations that five more children had been abused by paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Fr Doyle refuted Cardinal Brady’s contention that he had not failed the children in 1975 as he had filed a report on the claims to his bishop at the time. Cardinal Brady has long argued he was but a notary at that time and had no power.

Fr Doyle said: “‘I passed it up the chain’ is completely inadequate. I mean if he didn’t do it, he should have told the bishop the other families need to be notified. If you won’t do it I will do it. You know the man was not a robot. And these are human beings, that he is dealing with here... And so you know the information was very clear, the testimony that Brendan [Boland] apparently gave to them was very, very clear — and detailed as well as the names of the others.”