Paedophile Smyth threatened other cleric

Paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth threatened to punch another cleric when warned to stay away from altar boys, an inquiry has heard.

Fr William Fitzgerald, who served with Smyth at Kilnacrott Abbey in Co Cavan during the late 1980s, described the serial child molester as a scary individual whose notoriety extended across the world.

Giving evidence to the Historical Abuse Inquiry, the 61-year-old Australian also said he had to bar Smyth from church rehearsals with nine altar boys.

He said: “I told him ‘in view of the rumours about you and your sexual activities with children, you will not be anywhere near these kids under my watch’.

“He said ‘I’ll knock your head off’. I said ‘oh make my day you bastard. I’ll knock your head clean off’.”

Retired judge Anthony Hart is leading the inquiry, one of the UK’s largest inquiries into physical, sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church, state and voluntary organisations.

Smyth, at the centre of one of the first clerical child sex abuse scandals to rock the Catholic Church in Ireland, was eventually convicted of more than 100 child abuse charges on both sides of the border. He died in prison in the Republic of Ireland in 1997, after serving three years behind bars.

Fr Fitzgerald said the boot of Smyth’s car was always filled with “candy”. “That was his tool in dealing with the children,” he said.

Apologising to the victims, Fr Fitzgerald slammed efforts to stop the prolific paedophile as “pathetic”. He also claimed Smyth’s poisonous legacy had forced the closure of Kilnacrott Abbey and destroyed the Norbertine order.

“In Ireland the word ‘Norbertine’ means ‘paedophile’ .Anyone who knows what the word ‘Norbertine’ means, they just mark them with the brush of Brendan Smyth,” said Fr Fitzgerald

“The whole order from the top of Denmark to the bottom of Brazil has been slashed with the paedophile brush,” he said. The inquiry has set aside a week to examine if systemic failings allowed Smyth, from west Belfast, to continue offending for more than four decades.

Fr Fitzgerald said he was first made aware of Smyth’s reputation while talking with a colleague in Perth, Australia in 1973.

He told the inquiry panel that priests were treated differently from other adults who committed crimes. Nothing short of murder would warrant punishment, he claimed.

“Arrest was something you never did to a priest. Anything short of murder or maybe fiddling too much with the finances. It is protectionism called clericalism” said Fr Fitzgerald. New protocols have marked a sea change in the attitude towards clergy, he said.