Fr. Tony Walsh

The Cardinal Connell Files No 4 - Fr Walsh
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: Father Tony Walsh was a priest in Coolock and Ballyfermot, who impersonated Elvis Presley as a member of the , more »

Infamous "Elvis" priest Tony Walsh has been enjoying his freedom for two years - because the Director of Public Prosecutions still has not decided if he should face fresh abuse charges.
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The huge file was then sent to the DPP with recommendations that Walsh - who has already served a jail sentence for abusing young boys - face new charges of sexual assault.
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Gardai set up a special phone line for anyone wanting to make allegations, and it is understood the accusations against Walsh came as a result of their appeal for information.

Walsh, a former member of the All-Priests Show, was jailed for 10 years in 1997 for offences against young boys.

His sentence was reduced on appeal to six years - and he was freed from the Curragh prison in Co Kildare last May.

In 2003, The Star revealed that the former priest had been staying at a house in Dublin's North Circular Road since he was released from prison.

His bedsit flat is barely 200 yards from the Phoenix Par, where he raped a nine-year-old boy.

His victim, now in his late 30s, broke his silence to tell of the Phoenix Park ordeal in a harrowing RTE "Prime Time" investigation of paedophiles in the Catholic Church.

He told how Walsh brought him to a cave in the sprawling park and carried out a violent rape on a dirty mattress.

The victim recalled that Walsh used a purple clerical garment to clean the boy when he had finished raping him.

In 1992, a special Church commission recommended that Walsh be kicked out of the priesthood.

Walsh appealed the decision to Rome - and he was eventually expelled in 1995.

Paedophile priest Fr. Tony Walsh has had his sentence cut by four years.
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Fr. Walsh appealed his case to the court on July 29, claiming he had received unfair publicity.

He also claimed that a second sentence he received should have been concurrent rather than consecutive.

He was sentenced to six years and four years and the second sentence was quashed by the appeal court.

Fr. Walsh (44) admitted 12 charges of indecently assaulting the boys from 1980 to 1988.
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Fr. Walsh carried out five of the sex attacks in the presbytery of the Church of Assumption in Ballyfermot.

The court heard that he had convinced himself he was not harming the boys - who were aged from eight to fourteen.

One of the victims said after Fr. Walsh's original conviction: "I would have preferred if he was shot."

When Fr Tony Walsh arrived as Parish Priest at St John Vianney's Blackpool, he found that, like the Mikado of Gilbert & Sullivan, he had to take "under his wing, Tra La, a very unattractive old thing, Tra La".The Church ceiling had historical defects, which needed immediate attention.Quite literally, it needed to be completely replaced.The problem of getting this work done while keeping the church in use was solved by building a platform close to the ceiling, rather like Michelangelo had when he was painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.The work was carried on above the heads of the worshippers, out of sight and mostly out of earshot too.
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Competition winners, Jessica Edwards, Curtis Myers, and Lucy Hill with Bishop Patrick, Head Teacher Stephen Tierney, Architect Peter Hadfield and Fr Tony Walsh.