Brendan Smyth’s victims to take gardaí to court

Victims of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth are to take legal action against the gardaí. The move follows revelations that officers in Dublin knew about his sex abuse in the early 1970s.

Solicitor Kevin Winters said civil proceedings were begun due to the “appalling failure” to stop Smyth.

“A number of victims of Smyth’s abuse have asked us to write to the Garda commissioner to find out why they didn’t act on a letter sent to Finglas Garda station in 1973,” said Mr Smyth.

“Our clients are shocked to learn that the document didn’t alert the gardaí and the authorities to the very real risk of future abuse by Smyth.”

On Wednesday, previously unseen confidential documents from St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin were shown to the Historical Abuse Inquiry in the North. They revealed Smyth had asked his psychiatrist to have him admitted to hospital after coming to the attention of gardaí in Finglas in 1973.

In a letter to an officer at Finglas Garda station, the doctor said: “I have been asked to write to you by Fr Brendan Smyth of Holy Trinity Abbey, Kilnacrott. He has been a patient under my care for some months and I am familiar with the nature of his problems. I am writing to his superior suggesting that he should have a period of inpatient care in St Patrick’s Hospital or in St Edmonds Bury. I hope this arrangement will be satisfactory to you and your superiors.”

Mr Winters said the psychiatrist’s letter ought to have promoted the immediate arrest of Smyth. A case summary dated February 1974 also confirmed Smyth’s diagnosis of paedophilia.

Victims’ campaigner Margaret McGuckin said: “We want to know where the cover-up starts and finishes and how far it spread.”