VICTIMS OF BRENDAN SMYTH SEEK ANSWERS FROM GARDAI ON ABUSE KNOWLEDGE
A solicitor representing victims of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth says the course of the legal action they are taking has not yet been determined.
Yesterday it was announced that the victims will take legal action against the gardaí, after revelations that officers in Dublin knew about Father Smyth’s sex abuse in the early 1970s.
This emerged at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland, which is currently examining whether systemic failings enabled Smyth to continue his offending for so long.
Solicitor Kevin Winters says based on the current evidence, they may pursue a civil action or even wider.
“That may well be something that we’re going to have to look at in a lot more detail – obviously it has been looked at in considerable detail in the Republic of Ireland” he said.
“But this issue that has developed with the historical inquiries abuse team in Banbridge clearly gives much more substance now to not only a potential civil action, but something much wider than that” he added.
