Abuse priest freed from jail

One of the most high-profile Irish Roman Catholic priests to be convicted of child sex abuse was released from prison today at the height of renewed controversy over the issue.

Father Ivan Payne, 59, was freed from the Curragh jail, in Co Kildare, after serving four-and-a-half years of a six-year sentence imposed for 13 sample counts of indecent assault on nine boys between 1968 and 1987.