A Catholic priest has been jailed for three years for abusing a boy at a children’s home, in the first case to emerge from allegations of a VIP paedophile ring at a guesthouse in south London.



Father Tony McSweeney, 68, was arrested in February 2013 at his parish in St George’s, Norwich, where he was a respected member of the establishment. He was a member of the governing body of a Catholic school and at one time had served as part-time chaplain for Norwich football club.

When he was arrested officers found indecent images of boys on his computer, and evidence presented to his trial revealed that he had been offending as far back as the 1970s, when he began training for the priesthood.

His trial heard how for four decades he was an active paedophile, and that the church and the authorities, including the Catholic church, ignored at least two clear warning signs of his sexual interest in children.

McSweeney was arrested as a result of a police investigation into allegations that Elm House guesthouse in Barnes was home to a paedophile ring that preyed on boys from nearby Grafton Close children’s home.

He was convicted last month of attacking a teenage boy at the home between 1979 and 1981, when his friend John Stingemore was manager. He was also found guilty of three counts of making indecent images of children between 2012 and 2013. He was sentenced at Southwark crown court on Friday.

The investigation that led to his conviction looked into claims that boys from the children’s home were supplied to the Elm House guesthouse to be abused by men who allegedly included cabinet ministers, MPs, diplomats, policemen and judges.

But while police are sure the guesthouse was frequented by the then Liberal MP Cyril Smith, no links were established during the investigation between the children’s home and the guesthouse. Victims interviewed as part of the inquiry made no allegations about MPs or other figures within the establishment at the time.

It was McSweeney, who was known by the boys at the home in Hounslow as “the priest”, and his friend Stingemore, 72, who were accused of years of abuse. Stingemore was never brought to justice. He died weeks before the trial of both men was due to start.

The Catholic church has admitted that two bishops were responsible for allowing McSweeney to continue as a priest in the late 1990s after the housekeeper at his parish in Essex found what she said was a video containing paedophile images.

The housekeeper told Southwark crown court that she discovered a video containing footage of two young boys engaged in sexual activity, but was ignored when she sought help from the Catholic church. She said they told her that she was mistaken about the age of the children in the video, and that it featured pornography rather than paedophilic images. As such it was regarded as a matter of clergy discipline and McSweeney was sent for therapy and counselling.

He was later appointed to a post in the diocese of East Anglia after discussions between the then bishop of Brentford, Thomas McMahon, and the then bishop of East Anglia, Peter Smith, now the archbishop of Southwark.

McSweeney’s victim, who was 15 at the time of the abuse, said the priest would regularly visit Grafton Close. With his friend Stingemore, McSweeney would force the boy to expose himself and to be touched under the pretence that they had to make sure he was clean, the court heard.

“This was joint enterprise by both men to use the victim for their own sexual gratification,” said the prosecutor Sarah Plaschkes QC.

McSweeney was cleared of abusing two other boys between 1979 and 1981 at the home.

Passing sentence, judge Alistair McCreath said: “Whilst Father Tony McSweeney has never physically touched a child in a manner which is unlawful or improper, he has a voyeuristic interest in children – either in seeing them unclothed or in seeing them sexually abused by others. I have no doubt that the children who have been observed by him in the way the evidence shows they have been did suffer sexual harm.

”I would certainly assess that Father Tony McSweeney poses a high risk of serious harm to children. The nature of this risk is that of sexual assaults and exploitation via indecent images.”

McSweeney was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order, which restricts his access to boys between 12 and 17 years old and requires his internet use to be monitored.

In a statement following McSweeney’s conviction in February, Alan Hopes, the bishop of East Anglia, said: “These are grave crimes, and I wish to reassure firstly the victims and all of those affected that I take the matter very seriously. As a bishop and as an ordinary member of society, I share the experience of great sorrow and regret that such offences take place and am firmly committed to observing those robust guidelines for the protection of children and vulnerable people that have been established in recent years.

“The later offences of accessing indecent images of children whilst serving as a priest have both served to compound the abuse already committed on the children themselves and breached the trust that was placed in him as a minister in the church and those who held him in high regard.”

The diocese of Brentwood – where McSweeney was a priest when the video tapes were found by his housekeeper in the late 1990s – said in a statement: “When videos of gay pornography were found in 1998, it was viewed as a disciplinary matter and dealt with as such. He was asked to leave his Eastwood parish and undertake therapy and counselling because Catholic priests should certainly not be viewing such videos.”

The statement said the church believed the video did not involve underage boys, although the vicar general who dealt with the matter did not view its content.

It added that McSweeney left the diocese, and applied to the diocese of East Anglia in 1999. McMahon, from the Brentwood diocese, spoke to Smith, then bishop of East Anglia, and disclosed everything about what had been found. A decision was made to appoint McSweeney to the parish in Norwich by Smith – who is now archbishop of Southwark, the statement said.