He had already been convicted of child sexual abuse in the US as well as child pornography in Ireland. Wanted by the authorities, the Irish priest Oliver O'Grady fled to Loulé, where he lived and was arrested this Thursday, 24 October, also for suspected minor pornography.
The information has been confirmed by Observer newspaper who also says that Oliver O'Grady was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the US state of California, in 1993.
Despite this, when he was still a priest, he only served half his sentence before being deported to Ireland. When he returned to his homeland, "he committed a new crime," according to the Judiciary Police.
Now O'Grady lived, in Loulé, in a house shared with other adults. It was in the Algarve region that he “came to be located and detained” by the Criminal Investigation Information Unit of the PJ.
According to Correio da Manhã, there is "no suspicion of child abuse" at the time the Irish priest lived in Portugal.
Still, Oliver O'Grady's record with crimes of this kind is already long. After being imprisoned in the US and having been deported to Ireland, he emigrated to Amsterdam without being an active priest. There, he worked as a volunteer and organized children's parties in a Catholic parish.
Oliver O'Grady's story was also featured in a 2006 documentary.
“Deliver Us From Evil” addressed the case of the Irish priest's violations of at least 25 children while he was still in the US.
In this documentary, says Correio da Manhã, the priest confessed that, after the violations, he went to the Church to ask for forgiveness…but he returned to act in the same way.
As early as 2010, O'Grady forgot his computer on a plane. Authorities ended up finding 280 images and more than six hours of child pornography videos on that computer, which led to the priest being sentenced to (another) three years in prison.
After serving his sentence, says the Observer, "Irish police discovered new child pornography crimes committed by the priest after the last sentence."
Besides, O'Grady had left Ireland, without reporting to the authorities. Now, he has been detained in Loulé and will await trial in pre-trial detention, before returning to Ireland.
Pope Francis himself has demanded measures to combat pedophilia in the Church. At the summit with the presidents of episcopal conferences from around the world in February, the Pope called for concrete actions.
In this sense, in Portugal, there are already commissions for the protection of minors operating in 20 dioceses.
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