THE PRIEST whose clerical abuse crimes were revealed in a newly-published chapter of the Murphy Report last month has had his face slashed by another inmate in Midlands Prison, it is reported this morning.
The Star says that Tony Walsh – dubbed ‘Fr Filth’, who was defrocked in 1989 by the Pope after years of sexual abuse allegations – was attacked on his way back to his cell after attending Mass in the Portlaoise jail yesterday morning, and was cut from his ear to his cheek.
Walsh had to be rushed to hospital as a result, Michael O’Toole writes, where he received up to a dozen stitches. Walsh was unable to identify his attacker, it is thought.
The chapter from the Murphy Report detailing Walsh’s actions was only cleared for publication last month, when Walsh was convicted on 17 counts of sexual abuse.
The report outlined how the first allegations of misconduct made against him – involving a boy of 8 – were lodged in 1978, just two days after he was ordained.
Though he was only formally defrocked by Pope John Paul II in 1989, he had admitted his conduct to colleagues four years previously, but no action had been taken.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has admitted that Walsh “should not have been allowed to stay in ministry one day longer” after the first allegations were made.
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