Archbishop welcomes jailing of paedophile priest

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin tonight said he hoped justice had been served after a paedophile priest named in a damning State inquiry was jailed for sexually assaulting an altar boy.

Tom Naughton was imprisoned for indecently assaulting the youngster while he was a priest in Blessington, Co Wicklow, in the 1980s.

The recent Murphy report in to child sex abuse in the Dublin Diocese said more than 20 named people had made complaints against the convicted sex abuser.

The investigation also criticised Limerick Bishop Donal Murray for his failure to deal with allegations about Fr Naughton, which was deemed inexcusable.

Naughton, 78, appeared before Judge Michael O’Shea at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court where he admitted five charges of sexual assault committed between 1982 and 1984.

The judge, who described the abuse as systematic, shocking and horrific, sentenced him to three years, with the final year suspended.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said: “Tom Naughton was an abuser who damaged the lives of many innocent young people.

“I hope those involved in today’s proceedings will find some solace and justice in his having to serve a jail sentence for his crimes.”

In 1998 Naughton was jailed for abusing altar boys in parishes in Donnycarney and Ringsend.

He was released two and a half years later and has since lived under the supervision of the Kiltegan Fathers in Co Wicklow.

The Murphy commission said Fr Naughton’s case was symptomatic of the Dublin Archdiocese’s attitude to child sexual abuse in the 1980s.

“Until the problem became so great it could not be hidden, the archdiocesan procedure was to do all in its power to protect the wrongdoer, while almost completely ignoring the effect of this abuse on the victims,” it said.

It stated senior churchmen were slow to respond to a complaint despite the priest admitting sexual abuse.

“As a result, Fr Naughton was allowed to continue his abusive behaviour for several years thereby severely damaging more victims,” it added.

Meanwhile abuse survivor, Andrew Madden, made a fresh call for the immediate resignation of senior clergy implicated in the sickening report.

He said Bishops Murray, Jim Moriarty, Martin Drennan, Eamon Walsh and Ray Field, were auxiliary bishops of Dublin during some of the period covered by the Commission yet remain bishops today.

Mr Madden said while they joined with other Bishops to issue a statement on 10 December 2009 to say that they are shamed by the extent to which child sexual abuse was covered up in the Archdiocese of Dublin, they have individually claimed to have done nothing wrong.

“Their continued presence in office is an insult to every child sexually abused by a priest in the Dublin Archdiocese, they display a contemptible level of arrogance and a shocking lack of humility.

“The Catholic Church in Ireland has totally failed to respond at all appropriately to the findings of the Murphy Report.”