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AN IRISH-BORN priest was found guilty in Chile today of sexually a young girl while he was the spiritual advisor of an elite school.
John O’Reilly, 68, was accused of repeatedly molesting the girl, who is now nine, between 2007 and 2010. The court concluded that the abuse began when the girl was five.
“A majority of the court’s members take as established, beyond a reasonable doubt, the following facts… that O’Reilly decided to engage in acts of a sexual nature through physical contact with a student at the school,” Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos said in her ruling.
O’Reilly was also accused of molesting the girl’s older sister but the court acquitted him unanimously of that charge, considering there was insufficient evidence.
The case touches one of the most highly regarded priests in Chile, which granted him citizenship in 2008.
O’Reilly is affiliated with the ultra conservative Legion of Christ congregation, itself beset by sexual abuse, influence peddling and other controversies in various countries.
For years, the Irish priest who arrived in the country in 1984 was the face of the congregation in Chile.
His case follows a formal denunciation of the order’s founder Mexican-born Marcial Maciel after several cases of child abuse and for having fathered several children. Maciel, who died in 2008, was also said to have been addicted to morphine.
The conservative group, founded in 1941, managed for decades to hide complaints against Maciel, who enjoyed the protection of high-ranking Vatican officials during the pontificate of John Paul II.
Sentencing in O’Reilly’s case was set for November 11. Prosecutors have asked for ten years.
O’Reilly has so far refused to testify. Upon entering the audience today, he simply told reporters: “God knows.”
- © AFP 2014.
The Greens will be struggling to survive after the madness they have put us through since they got into power.
@Red Line: Can’t you not focus on the subject being discussed instead of taking potshots?
Take your frustration out in the polling booths instead of ruining the comments thread. The destruction of nature threatens our very existence.
@Ollie O’Cleirigh: The Greens are fake environmentalists. For example they approve of mass immigration, no matter of the impact on Ireland’s carbon footprint.
@Ollie O’Cleirigh: public discourse is far more important than voting even though both are important. The greens have set back the green agenda in Ireland for decades with lazy and incompetent political leaders and party members. They constantly commentate on our emissions and come up with no strategy as to how to mitigate them. Not one word from them on nuclear power and investment in our grid which cannot even connect new wind farms as its totally ineffective and at its capacity already. Then when asked about public they talk about hydrogen trains when electric trains would transform the islands public transport. Bicycle lanes painted on the side of roads and south facing window boxes. They are done. Get them out. Impoverishing the poor further particularly rurally will not help.
@Allora: 100%. There a bunch of amateur politicians that got lucky in the last election.
Malcom why is your so called Green party destroying wildlife habitats ,biodiversity killing trees wasting millions of taxpayers money at Lough Funshinagh flood crisis causing the demolition and flooding of homes farmyards and villages in a National housing crisis !! By not allowing the lake return to its natural level!!! Is there a hidden agenda ?
Well said Malcolm. Green policies are becoming accepted in most governments and we need a brave voice.
Just how committed is the government to preserving what’s left of our biodiversity? It allows coursing clubs to capture thousands of our native hares, supposedly a protected species, for the purpose of setting dogs on them. If that can happen to an iconic species that conservationists have dubbed the “Flagship of Irish biodiversity”, then how serious can our leaders be about saving our wildlife heritage? The image of a hare having its bones crushed or being tossed into the air by a coursing dog could aptly represent the attitude of this government to the wild creatures that share the island with us.
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