Former Bishop of Galway, Eamonn Casey, will be described as “sexual predator” in a new documentary to be aired tonight on RTÉ which will hear from Casey’s niece, Patricia Donovan, who says that he first raped her when she was aged five.
Ms Donovan will tell the ‘Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets’ documentary – made by RTÉ in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday – that the sexual abuse continued for years.
She told the investigation that the former Bishop “had no fear of being caught”.
“Some of the things he did to me, and where he did them… the horror of being raped by him when I was five, the violence. And it just carried on in that vein…”
“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… It didn’t make any difference…”
Ian Elliott, the former CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Irish Catholic Church, said that Ms Donovan’s testimony “entirely credible”. He described the former Bishop of Galway as “a sexual predator” in the documentary.
It is understood that, while the Galway Diocese informed the Irish Mail on Sunday in 2019 that it had received just one allegation of child sexual abuse against Eamonn Casey, it has now confirmed that it had a record at that time of “five people who had complained of childhood sexual abuse against Bishop Casey”.
These accusations concern alleged events in every Irish diocese where Bishop Casey had worked.
RTÉ said that “the current Bishop of Limerick, Dr Brendan Leahy, who has access to documents relating to complaints made in his diocese expressed deep deep sorrow and regret to anyone 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.”
The documentary airs tonight at 9.35 on RTÉ One.