23 Oct 2018

Predator priest from NZ continued to offend in Britain

From Morning Report, 8:25 am on 23 October 2018

A predator priest sent from New Zealand to Britain was free to keep preying on children for two more decades because of failings by the Catholic Church. Last month RNZ revealed the crimes, including child rape, committed by Father Cornelius O'Brien in parishes in Canterbury in the 1960s and '70s. Fresh inquiries have revealed he likely abused at least one other person after he returned to the UK in 1976. The New Zealand Church warned Brentwood diocese in Essex about him. But neither the Church here, which remained responsible for him, or Brentwood passed that warning on to Norfolk where O'Brien went in 1981. Tim Bristow, investigations editor of Archant UK media group, spoke to RNZ's Phil Pennington.