Catholic Abuse News - Former Priest Jailed for Sadistic Paedophile Offences

Former Catholic priest and education advisor to Catholic schools, Joseph Quigley,
"Sadistic paedophile and voyeur"

Ex-priest Joseph Quigley jailed for child sex offences - BBC News

Yes, it's yet another tale of a predatory paedophile Catholic priest and an archbishop (now cardinal) who did little to stop his abuses or safeguard his potential victims.

A former Catholic priest and former national education advisor for Roman Catholic schools, Joseph Quigley, has been jailed for 11 years and ordered to sign the Sexual Offenders' Register for life after being convicted at Warwick Crown Court last December of four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, two counts of sexual assault, one count of child cruelty and two counts of false imprisonment.

The offences took place while he was the parish priest at St Charles Borromeo RC church in Hampton-on-the-Hill, near Warwick, from 2002 until he was forced to resign in disgrace.

Judge Peter Cooke described him as "a sexual sadist and voyeur" after the court heard that he rubbed the teenager’s inner thigh after making him wear gym kit, take showers with the door open, and inflicted ‘sado-masochistic’ punishments on him such as locking him in the church's crypt and beating him with a hurling stick.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster
"Shown he cares more about the impact of abuse on the Church's reputation than on the victims."

In 2008, when allegations about his relationship with another victim, a sixth-form student, were made against him, the then Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, removed him from 'priestly duties'and sent him to an institution in America for 'therapy' for six months. On his return, Nichols, now Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, reinstated him and he was allowed to continue as a priest, perform Mass for children and act as a schools inspector.

None of the allegations against Quigley were passed to the police or child-protection agencies, nor was there any investigation by the Church which would have uncovered evidence of the second victim.

According to this report in CoventryLive, Prosecutor Adrian Langdale QC told the court:

[Quigley] 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.

From 2002 until his forced resignation he was parish priest at St Charles Borromeo.

But in 2008 his behaviour towards the older 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,” said 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.

Langdale also told the court that having targeted his victim, Quigley took advantage of him struggling at school to offer private tuition to get him alone. The offences mirrored those he committed against the older boy, who was a pupil at a Catholic school. Having offered the boy extra tuition at the presbytery, Quigley made him bring his gym kit and sent him on runs before telling him to take a shower and leave the door open as he did so. During the tuition, Quigley would sit in a swivel chair with his legs wide apart and then abuse the boy.

This was for this defendant’s sexual gratification. These actions were not accidental. The rubbing was always very close to his private area. He constantly maintained eye contact, getting sexual pleasure from the terror in his eyes.

Quigley also made the boy do sit-ups and press-ups as punishments, to stand in the corner and suck paracetamols, which have a bitter taste. He also hit him to the thighs with a hurling stick, as he had done to another boy whose mother had challenged him about it.

As another masochistic punishment, he locked him in the crypt, a cold and dark room containing tombs, which he found terrifying, while wearing only his gym kit.

Although some allegations emerged in 2012, the full facts only came out after the victim began to see a therapist in 2017 – and the therapist informed the police.

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.

Once again, we see a senior Catholic cleric, this time Cardinal Nichols, then Archbishop of Birmingham in whose diocese Warwick fell, seemingly minimising the seriousness of allegations against a priest, a failure to properly investigate them and a failure to inform the police and child protection agencies. As always, the main concern was for the welfare and continuing career of a brother cleric, not for the welfare of his victims or the protection of potential future victims. Cardinal Nichol is the most senior Catholic cleric and effective head of the Catholic Church in the UK.

In effect, after a token 'therapy' session at one of the Church's own institutions, a predatory paedophile priest was allowed to resume his predation, apparently without even minimal supervision.

This is not the first time that 75 year-old Cardinal Vincent Nichols has been in the news concernign his failure to act against predatory paedophiles falling under his jurisdiction. He was severely criticised last November for his lack of leadership and his handling of other sexual abuse allegations, in a report by the Independent Enquirey into Child Sexual Abuse^PDF, following which he tendered his resignation to Pope Francis, but this was declined.

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