By Eniola Amadu
Five men who were sexually and physically abused by a paedophile priest while attending a school in Newry, County Down, are to receive more than £1.2 million in compensation, along with a written apology from the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The High Court settlements mark the conclusion of a long legal battle brought by the victims against the Diocese of Dromore and the board of governors at St Colman’s College.
The men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, alleged that the late Fr Malachy Finegan groomed and abused them between 1972 and 1984, when they were pupils at the prestigious Catholic boarding school.
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The settlements were reached without any admission of liability by either the diocese or the school’s governors.
However, both have faced widespread criticism for failing to protect children from Finegan, who held a senior position at St Colman’s and served as its president.
Finegan, who died in 2002, was accused of a sustained campaign of child sexual abuse but was never arrested, questioned, or prosecuted.
Years after his death, it emerged that the Diocese of Dromore had quietly settled a previous case with one of his alleged victims.
At the time, St Colman’s board of governors publicly condemned the physical, sexual and emotional abuse carried out by the priest.
Speaking after the latest settlement, solicitor Claire McKeegan of Phoenix Law, who represented all five men, described the abuse as “of the most sadistic, cruel and serious nature.”
“Our clients, at a time of their formative years when they were children in a prestigious boarding school, were abused by its president, Malachy Finegan,” Ms McKeegan said.
“They were harmed and they have carried this burden right throughout their lives.”
She added that her clients have also called for a full public inquiry into clerical abuse in Northern Ireland to expose the extent of institutional failings.
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“It’s important that in cases such as this, where a survivor has carried this trauma throughout their lives, that there is accountability,” she said.
“All too often these cases have been endured in silence by the survivors. It would be justice if the people who knew what was going on, and when, were compelled to give evidence.”
