Sex Charges Hit Tipperary-Born Archbishop

A complaint of child sexual abuse has been levied against a Tipperary-born archbishop.

It is the first official charge of clerical child molestation against an Irish archbishop, and comes in the run up to the publication of the Murphy report focusing on abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Richard Burke, 60, and Archbishop of Benin in southern Nigeria, is accused of sexually assaulting a Nigerian born woman in April 1983, when she was a 14-year-old patient in a hospital.

The claimant also asserts that Archbishop Burke had similarly assaulted her sister and over 100 other Nigerian girls.

In a statement the church's investigating body, also known as the Kiltegan Fathers, confirmed it received a complaint from the woman last December.

Mr Burke has stepped aside as Archbishop pending the church's findings.

A spokesman for the church's investigating team said: "She [the claimant] alleged that she was sexually abused as a child by Richard Burke. We expressed the deep sorrow and regret of the society for the suffering the complainant and her family are going through and we affirmed the society's commitment to child protection. The society offered to provide counselling for the complainant."

Burke, who is from Co Tipperary, was ordained a priest 34 years ago and later worked as a missionary in Nigeria. He became an archbishop in 2008.

The victim, a married 41-year-old mother of three who now lives in Canada, maintains she also had a relationship with the cleric for more than two decades.

The news of the claim coincides with the publication of a damning report on clerical sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese.

However, the publication of the report will be delayed for at least several weeks after lawyers acting for Justice Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday asked the High Court consider delaying release of the document, which is believed to contain a number of damning accusations against the church.

The delay is believed to concern potential criminal proceedings that could yet result from a current garda investigation, with fears that elements in the report might jeopardise a possible prosecution.

Last week, Judge Gilligan ruled that all but one chapter, and 21 other references in the report relating to a particular priest, were to be excluded from publication in case it prejudiced criminal proceedings.

(DW/BMcC)