Priest quizzed in child sex probe

A priest has been arrested and questioned in connection with allegations of child sexual abuse, it emerged today.

The clergyman was released after being questioned for several hours in Co Wexford, last Tuesday.

A file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, a garda spokesman said.

Radio reports said it was alleged that the priest, believed to be in his 50s, had sexually assaulted children in the diocese of Ferns - home of one of the biggest child sex abuse scandals to hit the Catholic Church in Ireland.

A garda spokesman said: “On August 13 a male was arrested and questioned at Enniscorthy garda station. He was released without charge on the same day and a file is being prepared for the DPP.”

Bishop Brendan Comiskey resigned from Ferns in April after complaints that the late Father Sean Fortune had continued to abuse boys in the diocese during the 1980s and 1990s despite repeated complaints.

Senior Counsel George Birmingham recently completed a preliminary report in relation to the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

The lawyer was appointed by the Government to examine the best way to investigate scores of complaints.

Meanwhile, the Church has promised an internal audit to investigate how it dealt with complaints of child sex abuse by priests, which it recently said had damaged the “faith of the people and the morale of clergy”.