Disgraced Bishop Eamon Casey was a 'sexual predator', according to new RTÉ documentary

The RTÉ documentary will reveal that more than €100,000 was paid by the Limerick diocese to one of Bishop Eamon Casey’s accusers, with the current Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy expressing his 'deep sorrow and regret to anyone who has been wounded by clerical abuse, including the people referred to in this documentary'. Picture: John Carlos/Photocall Ireland

Disgraced Bishop Eamon Casey was a “sexual predator” according to a new documentary investigating complaints of childhood abuse which have been levelled at him.

The documentary, Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, will be broadcast on Monday evening on RTÉ and will reveal how the Church received four separate complaints of childhood sexual abuse against Bishop Casey, along with one further “child safeguarding concern”.

It will further reveal that a six-figure settlement was paid by the Catholic Church to one complainant after Bishop Casey had died in 2017, and that the Vatican confirmed that the Bishop had secretly been banned from celebrating mass publicly in 2007.

Separately, the programme will feature an interview with one of the five accusers — Bishop Casey’s niece Patricia Donovan.

Ms Donovan told the documentary-makers that she had first been raped by the Bishop at the age of five, and that the same abuse had continued for years afterwards.

The former chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, Ian Elliott, describes Ms Donovan’s allegations as “entirely credible” in the documentary.

Mr Elliott told the documentary-makers that on the balance of probabilities Bishop Casey was “an offender, a sexual predator”.

“The fact of the matter is that individuals have come forward and spoken about… numerous sexual activities, some consensual, others not,” Mr Elliott said.

Many involved very young people. That is wrong and there is no justification for that, and it should have been stopped. Those that have been distressed and hurt should be helped and supported by the Church. That is a major priority.

In her interview Ms Donovan describes “the horror of being raped by him when I was five, the violence”.

“He had no fear of being caught. He thought he could do what he liked, when he liked, how he liked. He was almost, like, incensed that I would dare fight against him, that I would dare try and hurt him, I would dare try and stop him,” she said.

The documentary will reveal that more than €100,000 was paid by the Limerick diocese to one of the Bishop’s accusers, with the current Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy expressing his “deep sorrow and regret to anyone who has been wounded by clerical abuse, including the people referred to in this documentary”.

“They deserve our respect, belief and support. Without commenting on any specific allegation, I have no reason to disbelieve any of the allegations made,” he said.

Despite having been removed from public ministry by the Vatican in 2007, the programme will show that Bishop Casey violated that sanction on several occasions and had presented himself as a member of the clergy in good standing.

In response to the documentary-makers, the Vatican issued a statement to RTÉ stating that on the back of allegations against him Bishop Casey had been asked in 2006 “not to publicly exercise the ministry”, a request which was reiterated formally a year later.

The statement further revealed that the Bishop "was never reinstated… in spite of insistence from him and on his behalf”.

The Bishop consistently denied the allegations against him. Though those allegations were reported to An Garda Síochána, no prosecution ever resulted.

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