Father Tony Walsh, imprisoned for raping boys last week, named in report as one of worst child abusers in Dublin archdiocese

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The Vatican tried to stop Irish church leaders from defrocking a paedophile priest whose abusive behaviour was known about from the early 1970s, a previously censored chapter from a report on clerical child abuse in Dublin revealed today.

Father Tony Walsh, who was imprisoned for raping boys last week, is named in the report as one of the worst child abusers in the Dublin archdiocese.

The chapter describes how church leaders ordered the defrocking of Walsh in 1993 after receiving complaints of abuse over 15 years. The Vatican overruled the verdict and ordered him to be sent to an Irish monastery instead.

Walsh was finally dismissed in 1996 after police opened a criminal investigation and he attacked a boy in a pub lavatory after a family funeral.

Publication of chapter 19 of the Murphy report, which concludes that there had been a widespread cover-up of paedophilia in the Dublin archdiocese, was previously withheld for legal reasons.

It says that Walsh abused children from the 1970s and priests, canons, monsignors, bishops and even the archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, knew about his behaviour.

The first complaint levelled against him was made in 1978, two days after he was appointed as a parish priest in Ballyfermot, west Dublin, but nothing was done.

The report also describes as "astonishing" a letter from Archbishop Connell thanking Walsh for his "dedicated work" in Ballyfermot.

Walsh was permitted to continue as a priest, even though a report to the archdiocese in 1988 described him as "a very disturbed man who is always going to be dangerous" and "could not be let near schools, children, confession etc".

It described how some priests felt his activities were "hushed up'' and that a monsignor was outraged at a suggestion that the gardaí be informed of his activities.

The complaints continued, including one from the housekeeper in his parish who found her clothes – as well as syringes and condoms – in Walsh's room and saw boys leaving it. Ten years after the first complaint, church authorities sent him to the UK for treatment.

The report says Walsh fought the penal process at every stage, and even though the archdiocese found in 1993 that he should be dismissed, Rome allowed his appeal and he remained a priest.

Archbishop Connell wrote to Rome and begged the Pope to dismiss him. It was only in January 1996, 16 years after the first complaint, that Walsh was finally defrocked.

Walsh was given €10,500 (£9,000) severance pay, but continued to present himself as a priest.

The report concludes that action should have been taken by the archdiocese in 1979 at the latest, but recognises that Connell did act decisively once he became archbishop.

It also finds it unacceptable that two gardaí who were concerned about Walsh in 1990 and 1992 failed to pursue a criminal investigation.