THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland (BAI) has said that it is in correspondence with the family of a dead man who was accused of child abuse in the controversial RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme, Mission to Prey, last year.
The family of Gerard Dillon have called for an inquiry into the allegations that the Christian Brother abused a child while serving as a missionary in Africa. The allegations were contained in a programme which made false and libelous allegations against Fr Kevin Reynolds.
However, the Dillon family have been told that their complaint would not be investigated because it was made over 30 days after the RTÉ programme was broadcast last year.
Dillon’s grand-niece Amanda Dillon told Newstalk’s Breakfast programme that this did not seem fair.
“To not look at our complaint on the basis, of what we would perceive as a small technicality… that really doesn’t feel fair and doesn’t seem balanced against the huge fallout from the programme,” she said.
Contacted by TheJournal.ie today, the BAI said: “The BAI is in correspondence with the family. It doesn’t comment on the correspondence as it relates to the families only.
A spokesperson added that it “will continue to correspond” with the family of Gerard Dillon.
In the wake of criticism and an expected BAI fine of RTÉ for its handling of the programme, Amanda Dillon has said that there needs to be a full investigation into the research carried out by RTÉ.
Dillon also called on the State broadcaster to provide her family with evidence of its accusations against Brother Dillon, who died in 2005, that he was a child abuser.
She continued: “We’ve had no solid evidence come back to us about how they managed to source this abused person who has never made his allegation in the public domain ever before, nor to the school, nor to the brothers, nor to the police. That allegation has just never, ever been made.”
The Department of Communications and RTÉ did not return a request for comment at the time of publication.
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