Let the gardaí deal with clerical child abuse

WITH reference to Marie Collins’s letter (‘Church’s new child safety guidelines challenged’, March 3), it really is hard to believe people are still in doubt as to the correct procedures to be followed in suspected cases of clerical child abuse.

Surely people must by now realise that approaching the church authorities is, at best, justice delayed and, all too often, justice denied.

Catholic bishops simply do not have the competence to undertake a preliminary criminal investigation, even if their impartiality could be relied upon — past experience strongly suggests it cannot.