Sex abuse priest 'fled to Brazil'

A Catholic priest at the centre of a major sex abuse compensation payout in Ireland has fled to Brazil, it was claimed tonight.

Father Peter Kennedy’s disappearance was confirmed after it emerged that up to 17 other individuals had made complaints against him.

The news comes days after a Co Sligo man abused by the priest was awarded €325,000, the largest known compensation pay-out in a clerical sex abuse case in Ireland.

Father Kennedy had been living in London since he was suspended from ministry in the mid-1980s, and, up until recently, was working as a taxi driver in the capital.

Tonight his brother, named only as Joe, said he believed the priest had escaped to Brazil in a bid to evade prosecution.

He said: “We are happy that he (the victim) has had some recognition for what he has been through but nothing will compensate him for the misery he has been through.

“The information available to us is that the gardaí wanted to extradite Father Kennedy from London and when they went to get him he was gone.

“It is believed that he is now in Brazil. To me that is a man on the run, there is no extradition from Brazil.”

The Kiltegan Fathers made the payment following the settlement of a High Court case in July.

In the victim’s statement of claim he said the abuse happened over a period of months when his father was dying from cancer and being cared for at home.

Some of the abuse took place in the room his father was in.

The family of the man, who was abused as a teenager, are now worried that other youngsters may have suffered similar ordeals since Father Kennedy left Ireland.

One relative, who did not wish to be identified, said: “It’s awful to think of the amount of damage he has done since he left Ireland.

“I shudder to think of all the vulnerable young people he has come across since then.”

Colm O’Gorman, director of the One in Four support group, commended the Kiltegan priests for their handling of the case.

“The priests are to be commended for responding to the complaint extremely quickly and extremely well. The victim’s family is full of praise for the respect the order showed and the way they dealt with this in a non-adversial way,” he said.

He said this was something other Irish bishops seemed unable to do, and that the Kiltegan priests’ actions should be a model to other orders and dioceses.

But he told of his concerns that none of the allegations against Father Kennedy were reported during police checks when he applied for work in London

“If he was working as a taxi driver police checks would have been done,” he said. “Is this simply another case of an Irish order exporting the problem?

“We now understand he is in Brazil. It would appear this person has managed to evade prosecution, and that in itself is a scandal.”

Previous large settlements in Ireland have included 300,000 euro (£207,000) from the Diocese of Ferns to Colm O’Gorman, who was abused by Father Sean Fortune, and 250,000 euro (£173,000) from the Archdiocese of Dublin to Mervyn Rundle, who was abused by another Kiltegan priest, Father Tom Naughton.

In a statement tonight Kiltegan Fathers, officially known as St Patrick’s Missionary Society, confirmed they had settled a civil action taken against them, but would not comment on the details of the case.

They said: “Peter Kennedy has been out of ministry since 1986 and is no longer a priest of the society or a member of St Patrick’s Missionary Society. He has been laicised.

“The society deeply regrets the abuse and the breach of trust that has taken place.

“It is our policy to take all complaints of abuse seriously. We have an outreach programme which involves meeting victims and their families: to offer them support; to offer them counselling; and to encourage them to make complaints to the gardai.

“It is society policy to co-operate fully with the gardai and the health boards with regards to any child protection issue.”