‘He needed to be caught, so no one else gets hurt’

IN SOME strange way, the former wife of fugitive doctor Rory Doyle, the mother of his two children, wishes he had disappeared forever.

The doctor, who has spent years trying to avoid answering to charges he molested two underage girls, has put Alva Doyle, his children and alleged victims through a terrible 12-year rollercoaster ride of emotions, she says.

“It is selfish but if he had disappeared that would have been the end of it,” Alva says from her home in Florida, where Doyle may finally face the trial he first fled from in 2001.

“But he needed to be caught because ... somebody else will get hurt at the end of the day.”

Doyle, 57, is wanted in Florida to face three charges of child molestation, and a fourth of failing to up turn for his Nov 2001 trial.

The offences are alleged to have happened at Treasure Island, Florida, between Sept 1994 and Feb 1995, then at St Petersburg in July 2000. He denies the charges.

Doyle, who changed his name to David West while on the run and living in Ireland, was arrested in Morocco earlier this month, almost a year after he was handed his passport and allowed to leave Dublin despite being extradited back to the US.

While there is no extradition treaty between the United States and Morocco, authorities in both countries are working to hammer out a way to ease his return to Florida, likely through deportation.

US authorities have delivered a package of documents detailing the case against Doyle, bolstering the argument that he should be thrown out of the country.

Much of the documentation had already been compiled for the extradition from Ireland, which was nearing an end with a Supreme Court appeal pending when Doyle disappeared just before Christmas last year.

While prosecutors in Florida would not reveal their game plan, Alva Doyle, whose own sister was one of the alleged victims, understands: “It does really seem that Morocco does not want him and are pushing for any way to be done with him.”

She believes if deported it will be to the US, not Ireland.

Few details have emerged about how he was tracked down in the Moroccan coastal city of Tangier.

Florida’s Pinellas county assistant state attorney Ken Hellickson said he could not reveal details, but did say: “We were very pleased we had him in Ireland — and we are pleased that we have been able to find him again.”

His ex-wife adds: “I am curious to see how he was caught, how he drew attention to himself.”

If Doyle is innocent until proven guilty of the charges against him, he has demonstrably proven to be a terrible father, his ex-wife argues.

“What father could leave their children and never talk to them again? What father could do that?”

And when arrested in Ireland after eight years on the run, he promised his children he would not flee again. His last correspondence with his now 19-year-old daughter — who travelled to Ireland to meet him after he surfaced again — was an email on Dec 21 last year, a day before he used his returned passport to disappear, given to him supposedly for a week’s holiday in England.

When the family heard he had been caught again — just hours before it broke publicly — Alva’s first thoughts were for her children. All those emotions they have been dealing with for over a decade, always bubbling under, surfaced again.

“My worry is for my children. This is their dad, they are young, they have little life experience. I worry about them and how they will process all this,” says Alva.

“There’s no way this can happen and not affect them. I just hope they are OK. My daughter is pretty upset for many reasons.”

As for her sister, Alva says she is OK but just waiting to see what happens, whether Doyle will fight to remain in Morocco and, when and if returned, whether there will finally be a trial.

“She’s just waiting to see what he is going to do. This is 12 years of a lot of emotions, a rollercoaster ride.”

Doyle, after eight years on the run and after changing his name by deed poll in 2004, was arrested in 2009, then released on bail in the face of vigorous opposition from the US government.

After being ordered extradited in Jan 2010, last Christmas he was given his passport back for a week’s holiday with his elderly mother in England.

However, he failed to sign on at Donnybrook Garda Station in Dublin on the appointed date.

Then his mother, who later for-feited over €100,000 bail money, told gardaí at Donnybrook station her son was gone but nothing was done to follow up for nearly a month, including telling the Garda Extradition Unit.

Mr Justice Michael Peart, in a High Court bail forfeiture hearing, described the situation as a “mockery of the process”.

The extradition unit was not informed and nothing was done for a month, Mr Justice Peart said.

What happened “points up a serious defect” and “reflects badly on Ireland”, he added.