Priest pleads guilty to indecent assault charges

A man who was sexually abused at school by a Catholic priest in 1976 has told a court that his parents felt powerless but responsible for sending him into a lion’s den.
76 year old Patrick McCabe, who is a subject of the Murphy Report, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting the then 13 year old boy in a car in Kildare.
The court heard former priest Patrick McCabe molested the 13 year old boy on a visit to his school in January 1976 when he introduced himself as a friend of the family.
When interviewed by Gardai in California in 2007 prior to his extradition the 76 year old said the young teenager was handsome and had matched up with his ‘fetish’.
His now 50 year old victim gave evidence that the assault changed his life for ever and that when he reported it he was abused by another priest.
He said his parents were told by by the headmaster that if they ‘didn’t talk about what happened, it would go away.’
He said his mother and father felt responsible but powerless to help. ‘the catholic church, the very institution that formed my parents’ lives was the institution that brought our family life crashing down.
Patrick McCabe is to be sentenced on March 22nd.