'Priest who raped me was a police informer - so I fled to Scotland'
Victims of a notorious paedophile priest who may have abused 400 children over four decades have come forward to tell their story of suffering, and allegations of cover-up by the Catholic Church and collusion with police.
The crimes took place in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Victims claim Finnegan was passing intelligence on IRA suspects to the RUC. Police knew about Finnegan’s offending as early as 1996, but didn’t act. Much of Finnegan’s offending took place in areas close to the Irish border, known during The Troubles as ‘Bandit Country’ because of intense IRA activity.
Finnegan’s other victims want justice. Some have received compensation from the Catholic Church, but that’s far from enough. Sean and others want anyone in the Catholic Church who was complicit in Finnegan’s crimes arrested and charged. They claim many clergy knew Finnegan was a paedophile while the crimes were happening. They also want the Police Service of Northern Ireland - the RUC’s successor organisation - to reveal whether Finnegan was an informer.
The abuse began when Sean volunteered as an altar boy at Finnegan’s church. Finnegan discovered Sean was diabetic. “He saw that as a vulnerability.”
Looking back on events, Sean believes Finnegan was fishing for information to pass to police while carrying out abuse. Sean lived in a republican area. Finnegan would ask him questions like “what does your father think about the Troubles? What are your uncles’ interests in the Troubles? Do your uncles get involved? Are your cousins interested? Do they want to join the IRA? Do these people have guns or any links to anybody? He was a priest so I told him the truth: I didn’t know of anybody in my family linked in any way. What would especially prompt questions would be if something happened like a bomb or a shooting.”
Sean says others have told him that when they were children, Finnegan also asked about links between their families and the IRA, and on some occasions “their properties were raided and arrests were made in the days following Finnegan being given information. Back then, people were wondering ‘how the hell did the police know your man down the road had guns or IRA membership’.” Today, they realise they spoke to Finnegan shortly before the police operations.
Sean says at one point, during the abuse, Finnegan was sent to a Catholic Church facility in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where paedophile priests were “rehabilitated”. Finnegan rang Sean from Stroud using public payphones. Sean could hear traffic, and on some occasions children. This, he says, implies the Church knew Finnegan was a paedophile, but allowed him to remain at large, posing a risk to children.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/...-scotland/
Victims of a notorious paedophile priest who may have abused 400 children over four decades have come forward to tell their story of suffering, and allegations of cover-up by the Catholic Church and collusion with police.
The crimes took place in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Victims claim Finnegan was passing intelligence on IRA suspects to the RUC. Police knew about Finnegan’s offending as early as 1996, but didn’t act. Much of Finnegan’s offending took place in areas close to the Irish border, known during The Troubles as ‘Bandit Country’ because of intense IRA activity.
Finnegan’s other victims want justice. Some have received compensation from the Catholic Church, but that’s far from enough. Sean and others want anyone in the Catholic Church who was complicit in Finnegan’s crimes arrested and charged. They claim many clergy knew Finnegan was a paedophile while the crimes were happening. They also want the Police Service of Northern Ireland - the RUC’s successor organisation - to reveal whether Finnegan was an informer.
The abuse began when Sean volunteered as an altar boy at Finnegan’s church. Finnegan discovered Sean was diabetic. “He saw that as a vulnerability.”
Looking back on events, Sean believes Finnegan was fishing for information to pass to police while carrying out abuse. Sean lived in a republican area. Finnegan would ask him questions like “what does your father think about the Troubles? What are your uncles’ interests in the Troubles? Do your uncles get involved? Are your cousins interested? Do they want to join the IRA? Do these people have guns or any links to anybody? He was a priest so I told him the truth: I didn’t know of anybody in my family linked in any way. What would especially prompt questions would be if something happened like a bomb or a shooting.”
Sean says others have told him that when they were children, Finnegan also asked about links between their families and the IRA, and on some occasions “their properties were raided and arrests were made in the days following Finnegan being given information. Back then, people were wondering ‘how the hell did the police know your man down the road had guns or IRA membership’.” Today, they realise they spoke to Finnegan shortly before the police operations.
Sean says at one point, during the abuse, Finnegan was sent to a Catholic Church facility in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where paedophile priests were “rehabilitated”. Finnegan rang Sean from Stroud using public payphones. Sean could hear traffic, and on some occasions children. This, he says, implies the Church knew Finnegan was a paedophile, but allowed him to remain at large, posing a risk to children.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/...-scotland/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
