Connell says sorry but faces calls to go

IRISH survivors of child abuse by clerics have renewed their call on Cardinal Desmond Connell to resign in the wake of yesterday’s landmark settlement in the High Court.

The Archdiocese of Dublin is to pay sexual abuse victim, Mervyn Rundle, over €300,000 in a settlement. Mr Rundle claims that he informed the diocese about the abusive priest, Fr Thomas Naughton, in 1985 and had to go back 10 years later because the priest was still sexually abusing children.

“I first went to the Archbishop’s house in 1985 with my father. I really thought it was going to be sorted and over with then. I had to go back 10 years later because I heard he was still doing it to other kids. That was really annoying. That was the bad bit. I shouldn’t have had to do that,” Mr Rundle said yesterday.