PATRICK McCABE, a former priest accused of sex abuse offences, is in jail in California awaiting an extradition hearing on warrants relating to offences which it is claimed took place more than three decades ago.
Details of his alleged offences are outlined in papers filed with the US District Court office in San Francisco, including Garda statements supplied to the US authorities in support of the State’s case to have Mr McCabe extradited.
The first offences were alleged to have occurred when he was a priest who provided religious instruction at an inner-city school some time between January 1st 1973 and the end of the school year in 1975.
A former pupil said he was indecently assaulted by Mr McCabe in the hallway of the school. An alleged second attempt to indecently assault him ended when the pupil fell on a coat rack and the principal came to investigate.
Although the allegations are the furthest back in time, they were reported only in June last year when the complainant went to gardaí in Store Street in Dublin. He said he had been taking alcohol and drugs in an attempt to block out memories of the abuse, but made a complaint to gardaí after many sober months.
Mr McCabe’s defence claims that due to his problems with drink and drugs the complainant is not a reliable witness.
A second man complained that Mr McCabe indecently assaulted him at an inner-city parochial house between 1974 and 1977.
He alleged Mr McCabe approached him after confession and invited him back to his parochial house on the pretext that he might be taking him on a trip to Australia. The man said Mr McCabe assaulted him on two successive occasions, once asking his brother to wait next door.
The man made his complaint in 2008. He said it had taken him nearly 30 years to talk about it properly and that he suffered from depression as a result.
A third man claimed he was assaulted in early 1977 while at a boarding school. He told gardaí he was enticed back to Mr McCabe’s car and the assault lasted an hour.
He had also received a letter from Mr McCabe after the assault which stated he was “always welcome to drop a line, ring or call”.
The alleged victim told a priest and his parents what had happened. He also made a statement to gardaí in 1987 when Mr McCabe was working as a priest in the US.
According to the court documents, Mr McCabe admitted he had met the boarding school student and that the allegations made against him were the reasons why he left the priesthood in 1988.
“He met all my requirements to match up my fetish and I embraced him and fondled him with no further sexual behaviour. We had a conversation and just parted,” he is reported to have told gardaí when they interviewed him in 2007 about the allegation.
When gardaí initially attempted to interview him about the case Mr McCabe refused, but he later consented in November 2007 and spent three days under interrogation, the papers show.
Three other men have made allegations of abuse by Mr McCabe when he was a curate in Dublin in the early 1980s and was undergoing therapy in England.
One man said he was indecently assaulted when lured to Mr McCabe’s parochial house on the pretext that he would pose for a photograph for the parish magazine. That complaint was made last year after the man had received marriage counselling.
Another man said he was indecently assaulted in front of two other boys. One of those boys made a separate complaint of indecent assault.
