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A PRIEST WHO was the subject of false allegations that he raped a teenage girl in Kenya has been welcomed back to his parish – preaching his first Mass in several months this morning.
Fr Kevin Reynolds today addressed parishioners in Ahascragh, Co Galway, where he had been the parish priest before being forced to stand down earlier this year. An RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme broadcast in May alleged that Fr Reynolds had fathered a child with the girl while working as a missionary in Africa during the 1980s.
RTÉ has since unreservedly apologised for the allegations, which it said “ought never to have been broadcast” and were “baseless, without any foundation whatever and untrue”.
Local councillor Michael Mullins told TheJournal.ie that Fr Reynolds had been welcomed back by residents, who were “delighted” at his vindication. Mr Mullins said:
He was a very popular man, and he got a lot of work done in the parish and the church , so there was huge support and sympathy for him. Nobody believed the original story, so when RTÉ apologised there was tremendous relief and support.
He added that he had known Fr Reynolds personally, saying: “I had great time for him. He was a gentleman and a really genuine person to deal with. I’m absolutely delighted and thrilled that he has been vindicated.”
The Sunday Times this morning reported that Fr Reynolds is continuing his High Court action against the State broadcaster, despite the apology.
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There should be a mandatory stiff prison sentence for anyone who makes a false accusation
Correct, Mairead. It’s all too easy to throw accusations that may have no truth to them. Am glad this wrong was corrected.
Can this wrong ever be corrected , some people will still believe the priest to be guilty,it`s a shameful accusation. I hope the priest can put this behind him.
Girls that say they are raped when they’re not sicken me.
Do they realize they could be ruining someones life?
Yes, Luke. They do a terrible injustice to those who unfortunately were the victims of rape. Crying wolf is very damaging.
I completely agree with you Luke. A case similar to this has just happened in my hometown as well. The accused priest tried to commit suicide and has had a total mental breakdown caused by a false accusation, made up in an attempt to get money.
The damage is done not just to innocent men, but to all rape victims.
Why are they let get away with it???
The work and effort of people who fought long and hard to expose the effects of clerical sex abuse and abuse in religious run state institutions can be seriously undermined by this kind of sloppy journalism.
RTE should be dragged to court to answer for this but unfortunately licence payers money will bail them out.
Licence payers money is easily squandered like when Beverly Cooper Flynn got away in not paying the full judgement made against her.
Will heads roll in RTÉ over this?
Doubt it in fairness. They should put prob won’t.
They’ll probably get a pay increase if anything
The notion that this is just about a reporter making a mistake is denial. RTE management knew the definitive results of the paternity tests a month ago, that was the time for the organisation to apologise. When the prime time team should have apologised will become clear as the story emerges in the high court. Prime times reputation is excellent, that’s why it should be mortified & open to a fast transparent resolution to this court case.
Noirin i know from personal experience Insurance companies and even your own legal team can prevent you from apologising or even engaging with other side until it gets to court, we all know the reasons for this, the Priest here was wronged badly and primetime made big mistake, but the apology was genuine and sincere. I accept earlier points that programme should have been delayed once the priest offered to take paternity test. Mistakes were made and apology was given, why can`t people move on now.
Doubt the apologies was sincere. The only reason they apologized is cause of the court case. They obviously made no attempt to check facts of this case and despite the priest taking a paternity test they still went ahead with the programme. Why couldn they wait for the results of the test then air the programme.
Aoife Kavanagh ruthlessly sought to destroy the good character of this good man despite his empathic assertions that her allegations were untrue. He offered to undergo a paternity test prior to the show being aired but RTÃ
@Mairead there is a difference from knowingly making a false statement and a reporter getting a story from an alleged victim who`s interview was shown in the same programme, Journalists make mistakes, but did so in good faith and the girl who reported the alleged incident is more at fault to me, by the way all that was proved is the priest did not father the child, that is what primetime got wrong and said sorry
Given the fact that the priest was adamant in demanding a paternity test be taken to prove he was not the father, I don’t see why RTÉ could not have delayed broadcasting of the programme until the result became known. It would have saved the license fee payer a considerable amount I’m sure. Their hastiness has cost them dearly.
And, for me, the show’s previously unblemished record for great documentary making has now been seriously tarnished.
Ya looks like RTE just didn care if the story was true or false and went for the more sensational story. This man is now going to be associated with this incident for the rest of his life. Doesn’t matter if he’s innocent the stigma will always be with him.
Are you kidding me?! This journalist and Primetime decided to run with the interview on the woman’s story, eventhough the priest had protested his innocence to RTE and pleaded with them not to broadcast it. Aoife Kavanagh was judge and jury. I can not imagine what the priest and his family have been through and I hope he sues the ass off them all and heads need to roll. Disgraceful.
The reporter should get his facts straight before reporting a story with serious repercussions.However the girl who knowingly made a false accusation should be locked up and the key thrown away[and fed on dry bread and water]Taking someone s good name is on the same par with murder.
Was surprised Primetime and the brilliant Aoife Kavanagh got this so wrong, but they did and the apology was proper and the priests good name restored, but primetime`s and Aoife Kavanagh`s record is still top class to me/
Are you always so forgiving? The allegations were a disgrace.There should be a public inquiry into how they came to be broadcast and how much all this is going to cost the public purse. But it won’t happen, because there’s no gain in defending the reputations of the clergy.
He should sue…..I hope he does
This matter did not happen in isolation.We are a small country with a largely homogenous media,most notably the highly influential RTE/ Irish Times axis.RTE is particularly problematic. In spite of it’s obligations as a public service broadcaster it has a blatant bias on a wide range of controversial issues.Does anyone doubt where it stands on abortion, gay marriage,Israel/Palestine,Democrat v Republican, climate change? If you have the same worldview you might have no problem with this.But remember the shoe might be on the other foot some day ( maybe in some instances it was before?).
While not the religious type myself Ed, your comment seems very exaggerated, my guess is about 5% of priests are guilty, who knows?
@Mairead i am not saying i wouldn`t be outraged if it happened to me,The Priest showed great fortitude in bringing his case , Primetime should have waited for the results before airing the prog, that is a given and rte legal dept will take the hit on that one. Aoife Kavanagh had a person who told her this priest had sex with her (raped)and gave great details etc, she also said her child was fathered by this priest, that part was proved wrong. Journalism is the loser on this issue, but i still have faith in good journalism and primetime investigates and Ms Kavanagh. The story went out in good faith,but was wrong.
@Mairead i am disturbed by your earlier comment about locking someone up and throwing away key and feeding them dry bread and water, that sounds like the nuns years ago, as for taking someones good name being the same as murder, well that is an extraordinary statement, murder is forever and the person can never ever come back, whereas the Priest has gotten a full apology, has been fully vindicated and welcomed back by his parish as witnessed on RTE news this evening.
Ya but Ken he’ll never get his name back. There will always be people who will believe that there had to be some substance to the claim. That’s the problem with a false accusation of rape. It will never leave you.
what about all the people who could nt prove that an accusation was false? /They cannot defend themselves and their lives are in shreds through no fault of their own….I think that is a living death and a person s heart and soul is in torment and their lives are a total misery.I read about a case last year of a man who was falsely accused by a neighbour.The truth only came to light when [years later and the damage done],the girl’s conscience got the better of her and she confessed.How is he supposed to recover from that.???Another woman made a false accusation against a taxi driver a while back.It was found out but what if it hadn’t???I believe that taking someone s good name is as heinous as murder . you cannot undo the damage with an apology any more than you can unscramble an egg.
@cormac flanagan- The priests good name has been Restored, in an equally public way. By the way accusations of rape have not been proved false, accusations he fathered the child have been proved false, i am not saying he is guilty of either and is entitled to his good name, but it is not accurate to say he was cleared of rape allegations, but the witness (alleged victim) is damaged now and difficult for anyone to believe her now,
@Mairead I still cannot accept your conparison with murder and being defamed, the Priest has his good name restored, re your example of not being able to unscramble an egg, your right it can`t be unscrambled, but then again it is nicer scrambled than raw.
Bless me father for I have sinned…or have I?
Has anyone from RTÃ
@ken…I would like to know if you yourself .would be so calm and forgiving so as to accept an apology and move on if someone purposely destroyed the whole fabric of your inner and outer life by a false accusation???
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