In 1994, McAreavey was asked to investigate an allegation of abuse involving Finnegan by then-Bishop of Dromore Francis Brooks, who died in 2010. Critics said that McAreavey failed to act on the allegations that had been brought to his attention. McAreavey, who did not become bishop until 1999, has said that he believed Bishop Brooks had reported the allegation to the authorities.
Brooks did not report the abuse, but sent Finnegan to England for reputed treatment, the Irish News reports.
Finnegan was never prosecuted for abuse, but the allegations were investigated by the Church in Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding Children starting in 2011, at McAreavey's request.
A 2011 review of six dioceses’ handling of child sex abuse allegations found that dioceses’ responses were often inadequate, the Irish news site The Journal reports. Some 10 priests in the Dromore diocese were the subject of 35 allegations. None of the priests have been convicted of offenses against children, and some have died. The allegations were reported to state authorities, but not always promptly, the review said.
Paul Gilmore, an attorney now living in the U.S. who says he was abused by Finnegan, is pursuing a civil case against the diocese. He told the Irish News that the redress scheme is “a cynical exercise in damage limitation.”
“They’re concerned about their exposure in the wider civil justice system,” he said. “This is an attempt to limit that exposure in my view.” He criticized that the reparations cap of £80,000, about $107,000, which is lower than several settlements secured by some of the victims of Finnegan.
Gilmore was also critical of the compensation scheme’s total funds of £2.5 million, about $3.3 million. He saw the diocese as “part of a much wider organization.” In his view, the diocese and the Catholic Church “clearly not” should be regarded as separate entities.
Canonically and legally, however, the Diocese of Dromore is its own entity and had responsibility for supervising its clergy.
“I didn’t take my case to get compensation,” said Dermot Nagle, another victim of Finnegan. “I wanted the truth to be exposed, the full truth of what the Church knew and when.”
Nagle said he did not believe that claims for abuse should be limited or capped, adding, “I’m concerned that this is another attempt by the Church to close down this scandal in an economic way without any disclosure, without any admission of liability and without having to answer our questions on how this was allowed to happen publicly.”
Solicitor Claire McKeegan of Phoenix Law is representing most of Finnegan’s victims. She told the Irish News that most settlements have been “well into six figures,” including the highest-ever settlement for an abuse case in Northern Ireland.
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Finnegan’s abuse left many victims “broken individuals who are unable, in most cases, to progress with life opportunities.” In her view, a redress scheme cannot provide victims “their day in court with full access to disclosure” as well as “apologies and admissions of liability.”
However, lawyer Kevin Winters, who also represents victims and survivors of abuse in the Dromore diocese, welcomed the proposal, BBC News reports. He said it was “long overdue” to launch a process to “address decades long unresolved sexual, mental and physical abuse perpetrated by priests and others.”
At the same time, he said many abuse survivors would “find it hard to sign up to a process which simply cannot deliver on explanations why perpetrators were able to systemically abuse children with impunity.” Winters added: “redress can form part of a process of closure for survivors but it won't resolve the criminal culture of silence of many people who were in a position to do the right thing but didn't.”
Similar redress schemes have been launched in the U.S. The New York archdiocese launched a reconciliation and compensation process in 2016 as an alternative process to civil litigation. As of 2019, it had paid a total of over $67 million to 338 victim-survivors through this process.
One victim who took part in the New York archdiocese process made the first known credible accusation of abuse against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop emeritus of Washington. That accusation led to McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals and his dismissal from the clerical state.
Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.