Child sexual abuse allegations made against Bishop Eamonn Casey

Multiple allegations of child sexual abuse have been made against the former Bishop of Galway Eamonn Casey.

Casey, who died in 2017, made headlines in 1992 when it emerged he had fathered a child with an American woman, Annie Murphy, in 1974.

He served as bishop of Galway from 1976 to 1992.

Now, RTÉ and The Mail on Sunday’s joint investigation for their documentary Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets includes an interview with his niece Patricia Donovan, who has waived her right to anonymity.

Ms Donovan claims that Casey began raping her at the age of five and the sexual abuse continued for years.

• If you have been affected by this report, help and support are available at BBC Action Line

Speaking on camera, Ms Donovan tells the investigation: “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 had no fear of being caught.

“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… “

The former CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Irish Catholic Church has described Bishop Casey as “a sexual predator”.

Ian Elliott, who has direct knowledge of Ms Donovan’s complaint against Casey, told the investigation that he found the account of what she experienced “entirely credible”.

In 2019, the Galway Diocese informed the Irish Mail on Sunday that it had received just one allegation of child sexual abuse against Bishop Casey.

It has since confirmed that, in fact, it had a record at that time of “five people who had complained of childhood sexual abuse against Bishop Casey”.

These independent accusations relate to alleged events in every Irish diocese where Bishop Casey worked.

RTÉ has reported that the first allegation of child abuse against Bishop Casey was made in 2001, which pre-dated his niece coming forward with her complaint.

The unnamed woman brought her complaint to the Diocese of Limerick, but Bishop Casey was working as a curate in the UK Diocese of Arundel and Brighton at that time.

The Limerick Diocese forwarded the allegation to the UK diocese and to the Vatican, but it was not reported to police in Britain.

RTÉ said the Arundel and Brighton Diocese has since “confirmed that the complaint was inexplicably lost”, meaning Bishop Casey continued in active ministry for another four years.

The investigation reveals that Casey was formally removed from public ministry in 2007 by the Vatican, following “allegations” which included his niece’s complaint of child sexual abuse.

That restriction continued for the last 10 years of his life but was never publicly known.

In early 2006, the Irish Bishops announced that Casey was moving back to Ireland from England to retire.

 By then, the Vatican had received at least two allegations of child sexual abuse regarding the bishop.

Casey denied all the allegations against him.

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute him.

He remained a Bishop until his death in 2017 and claimed his removal from ministry was unjust.

The documentary investigation also reveals that the Limerick Diocese paid over €100,000 in settlement to one of Bishop Casey’s accusers after his death.