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Former Offaly priest who abused woman as he brought her
to counselling avoids jail
He later asked her for forgiveness before assaulting her again
Fiona Ferguson
Sunday World
Today at 10:35
A former Offaly priest who sexually abused a young woman as he drove her to the Rape Crisis Centre for counselling has avoided a jail term as he is the sole carer for his elderly sister.
Joe Dunne (81) indecently assaulted the previously abused young woman on a number of occasions after befriending her in hospital. He later asked her for forgiveness before assaulting her again.
Dunne of Ballycrystal, Geashill, Co Offaly pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to five counts of indecent assault of the woman in 1989. He has no previous convictions.
The court heard the case had come to light as a result of a separate investigation in 2019 when gardai came across letters the injured party had written to her bishop about Dunne years earlier.
Gardai then approached the woman and she disclosed to them what had occurred.
Mr Justice McDermott said the circumstances of the case were extremely aggravating and noted Dunne had got himself into a position where he could sexually assault an abused woman. “That’s shocking,” said the judge.
He said it was clear from the nature of the assaults that they were carried out on a young woman in a most vulnerable position and who Dunne knew to be in vulnerable position after she turned to him for support at difficult time.
He said he was obliged to take Dunne’s guilty plea into account but said it appeared from some material presented to court that he does not have full appreciation of the damage done.
The judge also took into account Dunne’s age and his health issues in setting a sentence of four years imprisonment.
He said he also had to take into account the effect imprisoning Dunne would have on his 94-year-old sister for whom Dunne is the sole carer. He said the report before in him in that regard was “stark.” He said the woman would be in very serious circumstances if deprived of his support.
He said the court was faced with a dilemma and he took the “unusual and exceptional step” of suspending the entire sentence because of the disproportionate effect it would have on Dunne's sister.
The judge said this was not something easily done on his part but said it seemed to him it would involve a significant penalty on a third party if Dunne served the sentence.
Mr Justice McDermott suspended the entirety of the four year sentence on strict conditions including that Dunne attend with the Probation Service and undertake offence focused work.
Garda Darren Hughes told Conor Devally SC, prosecuting, that the woman had previously been abused by another person and spent some time in hospital as she found it difficult to get over. Dunne had befriended her in the hospital while aware she was highly vulnerable.
She was due to attend counselling which was difficult for her to access due to her rural location and Dunne offered to drive her to the Rape Crisis Centre. During several trips to the Rape Crisis Centre, Dunne indecently assaulted the young woman.
The young woman was shocked and thought no one would believe this behaviour of a priest so found it hard to reveal what was happening to her. She eventually prevailed on her family to keep Dunne away and made alternative arrangements.
Dunne approached the young woman and sought her forgiveness. She felt she had no choice but to forgive him and that it would be a sin not to do so. He prevailed on her to take a trip with him and again assaulted her in the car.
Dunne emigrated for some time and was in ministry in Scotland but the woman observed on his return that he was filling in to say masses and funerals so at this stage she wrote to her bishop.
The court heard “little or nothing” was done at that stage to make Dunne “amenable to the law.”
Dunne was arrested and interviewed during the later investigation after her letters came to light in 2019.
Dunne, who has been removed from ministry, made limited admissions at that stage, but entered a guilty plea to the indecent assaults prior to a trial date.
In her victim impact statement she said meeting Dunne had started 34 years of hell. She said she had been very low and told him what was wrong. He then insisted on bringing her to counselling but used these trips to abuse her. She said she had felt she would be safe with him as he was a priest.
She outlined the devastating effects the abuse has had on her life in relation to relationships, her mental health and employment. She feels she will grow old on her own as she can not trust anyone.
“I hope he will understand how he destroyed me,” she told the court in her statement.
Joe Dunne took the stand in court and told the woman he was very sorry for “anything I did to you”. He agreed with his defence counsel that his actions had been a great breach of trust.
The court heard Dunne has a number of medical issues and is on a range of different medications. He is hard of hearing and has mobility difficulties. Dunne told the court his sister, who is in her 90s and has her own medical difficulties, is fully dependent on him.
Defence counsel said Dunne had acknowledged the breach of trust he committed and expressed remorse, as well as apologising publicly.
Sure, he did that before and then took her right out and sexually assaulted her again.
He said Dunne was a man of no previous convictions who has led a good life and not come to any further garda attention. He asked the court to take his client's good character in the intervening years into account.
He said that Dunne’s sister was dependent on him and it would lead to hardship for her if Dunne was incarcerated. He handed up a number of medical reports and letters in this regard.
What an unbelievable creep! Pretending to be a man of God! He will soon stand before Jesus and we will see if He thinks Dunne was a man of God.
How a class-action in B.C. is tied to one of the biggest
sex-abuse scandals in Canadian history
Claim alleges 6 abusers were transferred from notorious St. John's orphanage
to Catholic schools in Vancouver-area
CBC News ·
Posted: Mar 10, 2023 4:00 AM PST | Last Updated: March 10
The Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, pictured in 1989. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
A lawsuit alleging nearly four decades of systemic abuse at two Catholic schools in B.C. has been certified by the courts as a class action, a move lawyers say could clear the way for as many as 65 potential survivors to seek compensation against the Catholic order accused of shuffling the abusers into their schools.
The original claim said the Christian Brothers of Ireland knowingly transferred abusive clergymen from a notorious orphanage in Newfoundland to Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate, where they went on to sexually and physically abuse more children from 1976 to 2013.
In a decision Wednesday, a B.C. Supreme Court justice found a class action would be the best way to move the case forward — rather than having each alleged victim file their own independent lawsuit.
"The decision creates a single lawsuit that can litigate the common issues between all of those people," said lawyer Reidar Mogerman, who represents the alleged victims.
"This is a really important step."
What happened at the Mount Cashel Orphanage?
The lawsuit links back to the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, where hundreds of vulnerable children were abused (and sexually abused) for decades by "cruel and sadistic" men charged with their care. Multiple criminal investigations led to a number of convictions.
A public inquiry found senior public servants, church officials, police brass and politicians helped cover up the crimes — cementing the case as one of the largest sex abuse scandals in Canadian history.
This was also the first big exposure of paedophilia in the Catholic priesthood, predating Boston's Spotlight revelations by several years.
Who are the Christian Brothers?
The Christian Brothers of Ireland is a religious community headquartered in Rome. The organization expanded into Canada in the early 1800s.
The order ran hundreds of schools around the world, including the Mount Cashel orphanage before its closure in 1990.
It founded Vancouver College, and St. Thomas More Collegiate in neighbouring Burnaby.
In other words, they did a lot of good things before the lust of the flesh took over the priesthood and lay workers. The Christian Brothers should be forced to change their name, or dissolve completely.
Vancouver College pictured on Thursday. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
Which abuses are alleged to have happened in B.C.?
The B.C.-based claim said the Christian Brothers sent six members from Mount Cashel to the Vancouver-area schools between 1976 and 1983.
All six were later convicted of sexually or physically abusing orphans at the Newfoundland facility, with two of them having admitted abuse before they were sent west.
A judge in 2004 found the Catholic order struck a deal with investigators in 1975: the members in question wouldn't face criminal charges for their actions at Mount Cashel in exchange for them leaving the province and seeking treatment.
The lead plaintiff in B.C., Darren Liptrot, claims one of the brothers, Edward English, sexually abused him from 1981 to 1983 while he was a student at Vancouver College in grades 9 and 10.
He said he tried to report the abuse to his vice-principal but was ignored.
None of the allegations has been proven in court and no statements of defence have been filed.
Edward English confessed to police in St. John's in 1975 about abusing boys at Mount Cashel Orphanage. Officials in the justice system covered it up, an inquiry later found, and English was allowed to leave the province. He's now accused of the same acts in B.C. in the 1980s. (CBC)
Why was the class-action certified in B.C.?
Since Liptrot filed his claim, his lawyers told the court more than 65 men have come forward claiming they were abused at the Vancouver-area schools by the clergymen sent from Mount Cashel.
Liptrot's lawyer argued a class-action makes it easier for potential victims to seek justice. They said it should be open to those who claim they were abused at any period between 1976 and 2013, when the last of the six men retired.
"There's really significant barriers to victims coming forward and so a class action like this breaks those barriers down," said Mogerman, the plaintiffs' lawyer.
St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, B.C., pictured on Thursday. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
The defence argued individual trials would be preferred but the judge said lawyers "provided no useful, concrete examples of their alternative model as preferable for systemic abuse cases like this one."
Defence lawyers also argued the class period of 1976 to 2013 would be too long, but the judge disagreed.
The six men sent to B.C. and later convicted of physical or sexual abuse were Joseph Burke, David Burton, Edward English, Edward French, Douglas Kenny and Kevin Short.
The lawsuit says the former students have suffered significant damage including pain and suffering, psychological injuries, addiction issues, the inability to have normal and healthy sexual development and spiritual trauma including loss of faith.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs want a declaration that they were abused and the defendants are liable for that abuse; an award for damages for negligence; past and future costs of health care; and punitive and aggravated damages.
With files from The Canadian Press
Is it too late to prosecute those responsible for sending the perverts west?
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