False accusations of child abuse led priest to challenge Church authorities

Priest wrongly accused of abuse calls Catholic Church to account

Friday, September 16th, 2016

False accusations of child abuse have led a priest to ask why Catholic Church authorities give any credence to anonymous allegations such as were presented against him.

Fr Tim Hazelwood, parish priest at Killeagh in east Cork, explained how “in May of this year I was successful in securing an apology and an admission that what was claimed about me was false, ie – that I was an abuser.

“This followed a High Court action taken on my behalf against my accuser. The action was settled before it went to trial. My accuser never came forward but remained anonymous.” It left Fr Hazelwood “with many questions and very few answers”. Read more

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News category: News Shorts, World.

Tags: clerical abuse, False accusations, Fr Tim Hazelwood, Sexual abuse

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Priest wrongly accused of abuse calls Catholic Church to account

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