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A FATHER of two has told how a priest raped him at the famous Carfin Grotto shrine when he was eight.

Pat McEwan, 63, said that after the attack, his abuser told him: “Stop crying. Be a soldier of Christ. God doesn’t like boys who cry.”

Pat says the sex attack was one of many he suffered in three years of hell at the hands of a group of priests at addresses in the west of Scotland.

He believes he was the victim of a paedophile ring. It’s alleged senior clergy were involved.

Pat first spoke out in 1998 about some of the allegations.

But Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Devine, who was Pat’s bishop at the time, took no action, and police decided not to bring charges.

However, officers have now reopened the inquiry and launched a major investigation into two retired churchmen.

Pat, a recovering alcoholic, says he is determined to get justice.

And he is being backed by a former child protection adviser to the Church, who says he quit after Pat was asked to forgive his abusers and not go to the police.

Police Scotland confirmed they had received a complaint about alleged “historical indecencies” by two men in their 80s.

A spokeswoman said: “An investigation is ongoing. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”

(Image: Daily Record)

Pat, who has agreed to give up his right to anonymity, told the Record his ordeal began in the spring of 1958.

He claimed: “This priest would kiss and cuddle me, then abuse me. He’d tell me I was his favourite.

“I thought he was like a father figure, but I must have been showing vulnerability.”

Pat said a second priest began preying on him later that year after approaching him in a school playground and making him promise to visit him at a chapel house.

He said that when he eventually obeyed, it was “the worst mistake I have ever made in my life”.

Pat said: “He was a man of God, but I met the Devil.

“I went in and he was sitting in a trance. He wasn’t moving, eyes open. I had to shake him and he started and came out of it.

“He said, ‘I’ve just been speaking to God and God has said I can take you to heaven. Would you like to go to heaven?’ I said, ‘Yes Father.’

“Then he said, ‘This is our secret between you, me and God.

“‘You’ve not to tell your mummy or daddy or you’ll go to the burny fire and you’ll frizzle and sizzle.’

“That was when I was first raped.”

Pat said the priest attacked him on later occasions, as two older boys were made to stand guard outside.

He added: “When I tried to run out one day, they blocked my path. I can only ascertain it was happening to them too.”

Pat says he was also preyed on by a paedophile ring of priests who would accost him on a path between a school and a chapel. He said: “There were Irish priests, strangers, asking me to do what I did.”

Pat relived the alleged Carfin Grotto rape, which he said took place after his mum took him and his sister to visit a senior priest.

He said: “My mum scrubbed and bathed us, put us in new clothes and took us over to the grotto.”

Pat said of the priest: “All the time I was looking for the halo above the head, as he was supposed to be a saint.

“He said, ‘Brother Patrick, you’d make a lovely priest.’”

Pat said the priest got rid of his mother by asking her to take his sister to ‘pray for Patrick’.

As they left, Pat said the priest reassured him, telling him: “It’s OK, your mammy’s at the kerb. It’s OK, she’s crossing the road now.”

But he said that once his mother was out of the way, the churchman’s demeanour changed. Pat claimed: “It was like Jekyll and Hyde. He said, ‘Right. We’ve not much time.’

“He raped me once and once only. He was very authoritarian and put the fear into me.

“Afterwards I was crying, and he was saying, ‘Stop crying, be a soldier of Christ. God doesn’t like boys who cry.’

Pat said that as the abuse continued, his mental scars began to show. He started to soil himself and was taken to a GP, who referred him to a child psychiatrist.

He said he kept his secret, fearing retribution if he spoke out.

But he believes it continued to cast a long shadow over his life as he grew up. He sank into alcoholism and his marriage failed.

“I couldn’t tell anyone,” Pat said. “I spent 16 years married and didn’t even tell my wife.”

Pat, a former shopfitter, finally decided to confront the Catholic Church in 1998. He also went to the police, with the help of Alan Draper, who advised the Church on ethics and child protection.

He had meetings with senior clergy, but Bishop Devine did not act.

Police investigated Pat’s allegations. And according to Alan, they spoke to two other men they believed had been abused.

(Image: Alan Richardson)

Alan said: “Back then, Pat had, shall we say, a chequered history, but that doesn’t mean to say he wasn’t telling the truth. It just meant he may have been a less reliable witness.

“The detective sergeant at the time certainly believed Pat.

“But the two other men the police also believed to have been abused refused to give statements.

“So without corrorboration, the police obviously felt unable to proceed.

“One hopes the re-investigation will produce more evidence.”

A third churchman allegedly involved in the abuse has since died.

Pat is relieved the case has been reopened. He said: “I want justice, I want an apology. But I feel I’ve been hitting my head against a brick wall this whole time.”

Neither the Catholic Church in Scotland nor Bishop Devine were available for comment.