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Priest Abused Sick Children

Irish Independent, 31 January 1998

CATHOLIC priest Father Ivan Payne admitted yesterday to sexually abusing eight young boys in Dublin on unknown dates from the late 1960s.Father Payne (54), with an address care of the Archdiocese, was remanded on continuing bail by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sentence on April 27 next.

Judge Cyril Kelly ordered the preparation of victim impact statements for the sentence hearing.

Fr Payne pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecent assault on dates from 1968 to 1987.

Two of the offences were committed in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin during the late 1960s.

The other six charges relate to locations in Drimnagh, Glasnevin and Sutton. Some of the victims were altar boys.

On Monday, Fr Payne pleaded guilty to a ``holding count'' of indecently assaulting a boy, under the age of 15, on an unknown date between April and October 1977.

The defendant has, in the past, worked with couples seeking church annulments of their marriages.

Yesterday's guilty pleas by Father Payne close a chapter of abuse lasting almost 20 years.

From the time he was a chaplain to young patients in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children as a 24-year-old priest, through ministries in Cabra and Sutton, Payne continued to abuse young boys apparently unchecked.

Chaplain for two years in Our Lady's Hospital (1968-70), he continued to be a ``named'' chaplain up to 1974.

The chaplaincy at the time was provided by priests at the presbytery in Mourne Road, Drimnagh, one of the places named in court yesterday where an indecent assault took place.

In 1993 Archbishop Connell controversially approved a loan to the priest to help him pay damages in settlement of a civil claim taken by former altar boy Andrew Madden.

Mr Madden received £27,500 plus costs from diocesan funds in the out-of-court settlement following allegations that he had been molested by Fr Payne for three years, first as an 11-year-old when the priest was in Cabra.

In a statement at the time Andrew Madden said: ``The Catholic Church in Ireland needs to confirm it will respect the victims of its paedophile priests and address their genuine claims for compensation.

``When the Church starts to respond to these issues appropriately, then people like me may be able to advise that they have changed but for the moment theyhaven't.''

And when the Madden settlement was reached, Archbishop Connell said: ``I have compensated nobody. I have paid out nothing whatever in compensation.

``It is my policy where a priest is guilty and where he wishes to make an out-of-court settlement, that is his responsibility. The diocese does not pay for that. So the finances of the diocese are not in any way used to make settlements of that kind.''

Priests in the archdiocese confirmed then that Archbishop Connell was known to have a sympathetic ear for his priests and to have helped out where necessary.

The controversy surrounding church monies followed the disappearance of £70,000 from church funds in Galway shortly before Bishop Eamonn Casey fled to the United States when the scandal surrounding his affair with Annie Murphy surfaced.

The money was subsequently paid back by friends of the bishop, anonymously.

On a Prime Time programme in September 1995 outlining details of the Madden settlement, a spokesman for Archbishop Connell said he knew the priest had a problem in the late 70s and early 80s when he was removed from Cabra.

However, it was claimed that after the settlement in June 1993, Archbishop Connell did not report the matter to the gardai, as is current Church policy, and the priest remained in Sutton for a further two years.

Church spokesman Fr John Dardis said that in 1982 a psychiatric assessment by a consultant psychiatrist had given him a ``clean bill of health'' and deemed him fit for ministry. Ten years had elapsed with no problems reported.

A further psychiatric review took place and it was also apparently ``favourable''. On the basis of this information, the decision was taken that Fr Payne could continue in his place of ministry, by that time in Sutton on Dublin's northside.

He administered at St Fintan's Church, Sutton until July 1995.

When the allegations became public, the Catholic Press Office maintained that although Fr Payne had been a priest in two northside parishes since 1978, his job as a canon lawyer with the Dublin regional marriage tribunal meant he had worked at the Archbishop's house ``virtually all of his time''.

As a result of the publicity, a number of other victims came forward.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/priest-abused-sick-children-458704.html