Day: Dec 5, 2020

Former national education advisor found guilty of sexually and physically abusing a boy while he was a parish priest in the Warwick area

Police praised the bravery of the victim for coming forward and giving evidence against him

By News Reporter The Courier

Thursday, 3rd December 2020,

The disgraced former national education advisor for Roman Catholic schools sexually and physically abused a boy while he was a parish priest at a church in the Warwick area.

As well as sexual abuse, Father Joseph Quigley beat the boy with a hurling stick and locked him in the cold and dark crypt.

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He was forced to resign in disgrace, prosecutor Adrian Langdale QC told a jury at Warwick Crown Court.

Joseph Quigley, aged 56, of Stone, Staffordshire, was found guilty at Warwick Crown Court (pictured) of four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, two counts of sexual assault, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of child cruelty.

Quigley (aged 56) now of Stone, in Staffs, denied four charges of sexual activity with a child, two of sexual assault, two of false imprisonment and one of cruelty.

But the jury took less than four hours to find him guilty of all nine charges by majority verdicts of 11-1.

Describing the perverted priest as ‘a sexual sadist and voyeur,’ Judge Peter Cooke remanded him in custody while a report is prepared on him to assess the danger he poses in the future.

Mr Langdale said: “This case involves allegations of historic abuse at the hands of this defendant, as he was known at the time, Fr Joseph Quigley. He was a Catholic priest, in a position of power and trust over the complainant.

“The abuse took two forms. First that it was overtly sexual by nature, such as touching and massaging the legs of the young complainant up to and around the groin area.

“There were other acts which were more like punishment of a sado-masochistic nature, such as caning or hitting boys with hurling sticks or shutting boys in the crypt of the church.

“It will seem extraordinary that a person’s religious beliefs could make them blind to what was wrong, but this is why Father Joe, as he was known, was able to get away with the abuse for so long.”

Mr Langdale added: “Father Joe was ordained in 1990. He held various prestigious roles, including being in charge nationally for education in Roman Catholic schools, as well as being a parish priest.”

When his behaviour towards the boy came to light, and he was ‘removed from high priesting’ and sent to an institute in the United States for six months.

“After six months of therapy, he was returned to the UK and put on restricted duties. It would seem the Catholic Church believed that by doing so it had met its duties,” commented Mr Langdale, who pointed out that the police were not informed.

“Despite there not being an investigation at the time, there was clearly another victim the church would have found if they had looked.”

When Quigley was questioned he told a series of ‘careful and deliberate lies and untruths’ – and after the jury’s verdicts Judge Cooke praised the ‘devastatingly effective’ questioning by officers during the interviews.

Adjourning the case for a report to be prepared, he said: “This defendant, previously diagnosed by an expert as a sexual sadist and voyeur, has demonstrated that.

“A lengthy prison sentence is inevitable. I need to decide whether, given that diagnosis, he falls to be sentenced as a dangerous offender.”

He added that investigating officer DS Abigail Simpson and the Warwickshire Police team were ‘richly deserving of a public statement of commendation and thanks.’

Following today’s outcome, investigating officer Detective Sergeant Abigail Simpson from the Warwickshire Police Criminal Investigations Department, said: “Joseph Quigley held a prestigious role and a position of trust within the community at the time the offences were committed, a position he abused by preying on a vulnerable child, grooming him and subjecting him to physical and sexual abuse over a number of years.

“I would like to pay tribute to the victim and witnesses who came forward and gave evidence against him. Thanks to their bravery, Quigley has now been convicted of his appalling crimes and will face justice for his actions, and hopefully this will now give the victim some sense of closure.

“I hope this case reassures anyone who may have been a victim of sexual abuse, either non-recent or current, that Warwickshire Police is committed to providing help and support to victims and bringing offenders to justice. We will always thoroughly investigate, no matter when the abuse took place. There is help and support out there, so please don’t suffer in silence.”

The religious order launched a commission to investigate sexual abuse at its schools after a court in 2019 sentenced a former teacher to nearly 22 years in jail for abusing four students from 2006 to 2019 in Barcelona.

RELIGIOUS ORDER IN SPAIN FINDS 25 CASES OF ABUSE.

December 4, 2020

BARCELONA, SPAIN – The Marist Brothers congregation in Spain said Thursday that 25 minors were sexually abused by former teachers of Roman Catholic religious order at its schools the country.

The order launched a commission to investigate sexual abuse at its schools after a court in 2019 sentenced a former teacher to nearly 22 years in jail for abusing four students from 2006 to 2019 in Barcelona.

Thirteen other former students at the school also accused him of sexual abuse but their cases could not go to trial because the alleged crimes happened too long ago.

“We studied the cases of 25 victims, we listened to them, and a process of recognition of their status as victims is underway,” said a spokesman for the order in Spain.

He declined to give further details about the conclusions of the commission, which will be presented next week.

“We were the first congregation to put in place an independent commission to listen to the victims,” the spokesman told AFP.

The order has agreed to pay 400,000 euros ($486,000) in compensation to the victims, according to a source with knowledge of the agreement who asked not to be named.

The amount paid to each one varying depending in the seriousness of the case, the source added.

Spanish media in 2016 began reporting on dozens of alleged cases of alleged sexual abuse at Marist schools in Barcelona between 1970 and 2010.

The reports helped break the wall silence which had existed in Spain until then about cases of clerical sexual abuse and led to a rise in accusations.

The Marist community was at the centre of a major clerical abuse scandal that erupted in Chile in 2017 and led to the resignation of 34 bishops in the Latin American country.

Sexual abuse scandals involving priests and teachers at Catholic schools around the world have led to costly legal action, are blamed for an exodus of believers, and have damaged the Church’s moral standing in hitherto staunchly Catholic states like Spain. 

PAT SAYS

More sad cases of abuse.

One priest abused until 2019.

Had he not been watching the tsunami of abuse being exposed?

It seems many abusers have no fear and the danger of being caught turns them on.

And this senior education adviser abused with severe violence.

MONKS AND MONASTERIES

The cases in Mount Mellerary and Silverstream have not gone away and will not be forgotten.

A Canonical Denunciation is being prepared in Rome and will soon be lodged.

A number of Irish Catholics have enlisted the services of a Roman canon lawyer.

SILVERSTREAM and it’s former and current priors – Kirby and Elijah – are unfit for purpose.

Silverstream needs to be closed.

GLENSTAL has had its current and historic problems and needs to be totally renewed and put away its reputation as a gay community in the past.

As readers can see – the priesthood and monasteries are as in a bad a state as they were at the Reformation.

“Sex is the Catholic Church’s 20 th century’s Galileo”.

We are watching this unfolding now.

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A Dublin priest recently sent me information about two priests who he says are HIV+ and claims that one may have infected the other in a sauna.

While raising serious questions about those two priests it also raises the larger topic of the number of Catholic priests (and bishops) in Ireland and world wide who are living with HIV.

Not to mention the many priests who died in the past of AIDS.

The very first priest living with HIV was in fact a priest from Larne where I live – Father Jackie White of the Kiltegan Fathers.

I only learned yesterday that Jackie White died last year of old age in London and was buried back here in Larne.

Jackie had a moment of fame in his life in 1983 when he interrupted a Vatican conference on HIV waving a big banner which read: THE CHURCH HAS AIDS.

Jackie was lucky to have lived in the age of the antroviral drugs and died of old age.

Because of these drugs HIV never turns into AIDS for most people. They are not an absolute cure – but they are a “managed cure’.

FROM ABC NEWS

“Jan. 5, 2001 — Like other Roman Catholic priests, Father Roger has taken vows of poverty, obedience and celibacy to stay pure and focused on God.

His parishioners trust Roger, who has known since grade school that he wanted to devote his life to the church.

But he’s afraid if they knew the truth about him he would lose that sacred trust.

“My ministry will not be able to continue if people knew that I was HIV-positive,” says Roger, who is gay and has broken his vows of celibacy.

Father Roger is not the only HIV-positive priest. He estimates that over the course of his ministry, he has known 15 to 20 priests who have contracted HIV through homosexual relations. Many have died.

“I’ve worked with priests who have died with AIDS,” says Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist and former priest, who has spent the last 40 years researching and writing about the sexual habits of Catholic clergy. “I estimated that 750 priests had already died of AIDS,” says Sipe, who has analyzed hundreds of cases of AIDS in the priesthood, and believes that “another 750 priests carry the HIV virus’

Father Roger said that nearly 20 years ago.

GLOBAL HIV STATISTICS 2020

26 million [25.1 million–26.2 million] people were accessing antiretroviral therapy as of the end of June 2020.

38.0 million [31.6 million–44.5 million] people globally were living with HIV in 2019.

1.7 million [1.2 million–2.2 million] people became newly infected with HIV in 2019.

690 000 [500 000–970 000] people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2019.

75.7 million [55.9 million–100 million] people have become infected with HIV since the start of the epidemic (end 2019).

32.7 million [24.8 million–42.2 million] people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic (end 2019).

People living with HIV

In 2019, there were 38.0 million [31.6 million–44.5 million] people living with HIV.

36.2 million [30.2 million–42.5 million] adults.

1.8 million [1.3 million–2.2 million] children (0–14 years).

81% [68–95%] of all people living with HIV knew their HIV status.

About 7.1 million people did not know that they were living with HIV.

People living with HIV accessing antiretroviral therapy

As of the end of June 2020, 26.0 million [25.1 million–26.2 million] people were accessing antiretroviral therapy.

In 2019, 25.4 million [24.5 million–25.6 million] people were accessing antiretroviral therapy, up from 6.4 million [5.9 million–6.4 million] in 2009.

In 2019, 67% [54–79%] of all people living with HIV were accessing treatment.

68% [54–80%] of adults aged 15 years and older living with HIV had access to treatment, as did 53% [36–64%] of children aged 0–14 years.

73% [60-86%] of female adults aged 15 years and older had access to treatment; however, just 61% [48-74%] of male adults aged 15 years and older had access.

85% [63–100%] of pregnant women living with HIV had access to antiretroviral medicines to prevent transmission of HIV to their child in 2019.

New HIV infections

New HIV infections have been reduced by 40% since the peak in 1998.

In 2019, around 1.7 million [1.2 million–2.2 million] people were newly infected with HIV, compared to 2.8 million [2.0 million–3.7 million] people in 1998.

Since 2010, new HIV infections have declined by 23%, from 2.1 million [1.6 million–2.9 million] to 1.7 million [1.2 million–2.2 million] in 2019.

Since 2010, new HIV infections among children have declined by 52%, from 310 000 [200 000–500 000] in 2010 to 150 000 [94 000–240 000] in 2019.

AIDS-related deaths

AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 60% since the peak in 2004.

In 2019, around 690 000 [500 000–970 000] people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide, compared to 1.7 million [1.2 million–2.4 million] people in 2004 and 1.1 million [830 000 –1.6 million] people in 2010.

AIDS-related mortality has declined by 39% since 2010.