Northern Ireland

PSNI 'apologise' for not accepting report over Fr Malachy Finegan scandal

Fr Malachy Finegan
Fr Malachy Finegan Fr Malachy Finegan

POLICE have "apologised" for refusing to accept a report of an alleged crime concerning the Fr Malachy Finegan child abuse scandal, a rights campaigner has said.

Amnesty International's Patrick Corrigan said police phoned him to apologise and offer assurances that the issue he raised would form part of their investigations.

Last week Mr Corrigan asked the PSNI to examine concerns that some senior Catholic Church figures had failed to tell police about child sex abuse allegations against Finegan.

However, he said police refused to accept his report because he was not directly involved in the case.

Finegan, who died in 2002, has been accused of sexually abusing children on church premises and at St Colman's College in Newry.

The controversy erupted last month after it emerged the Dromore diocese reached a six-figure settlement with one of his abuse victims.

Police have set up a dedicated team to investigate complaints of abuse involving the paedophile priest.

Failure to report a suspected crime is an offence under the Criminal Law (Northern Ireland) Act 1967.

Mr Corrigan said he wanted to ensure police had received a report to enable them to initiate an investigation, and was surprised officers refused to accept it.

But yesterday he said an officer had contacted him on Wednesday afternoon and apologised.

He said they gave assurances that the issue he raised "would be one of the lines of enquiry that they would be pursuing and offered to meet with me".

"I thanked them for the apology and I accepted their assurances that it was going to be one of their lines of investigation," he said.

"My only concern was to make sure it was investigated and I'm happy that's taking place."

The Dromore diocese has said the first allegation against Finegan was raised in 1994 and the second in 1998, while others emerged after his death in January 2002.

However, the PSNI said the Catholic Church first referred allegations against Finegan to police in 2006.

Police said they had spoken with Mr Corrigan and gave him assurances that they would investigate any reports or allegations of abuse or any alleged criminal offence.

A PSNI spokesman said: "We treat every allegation of child abuse seriously and would continue to appeal to anyone who has been the victim of physical or sexual abuse or who may have any information to report it to the PSNI public protection branch."