Abuse scandal in the Sisters of Mercy

The abuse scandal in the Sisters of Mercy in Ireland is one of a series of sex abuse cases discovered among Catholic clergy and related religious orders in the United States and Ireland in the late 20th century.

Investigations and allegations

Nora Wall, 1999

Paul Pablo McCabe, a homeless schizophrenic man, was alleged to have twice raped a child at a group home managed by Nora Wall, a member of the Sisters of Mercy. In relation to one of the two rape allegations, the Defence was able to prove that McCabe could not possibly have been there on the date in question - which was the 12th birthday of the accuser Regina Walsh. The jury acquitted him on that count and convicted him (and Nora Wall) on the second rape charge which did not specify an exact date.^[1]
On 17 June 1999, a week after the rape convictions, Regina Walsh gave an interview to journalist Barry O'Keefe of The Star newspaper claiming that she had also been raped by a "black man in Leicester Square" in London. This was news to Wall's defence team. Moreover The Star published the names of Walsh and her "witness" Patricia Phelan for the first time. A Kilkenny businessman read the newspaper and recognised Phelan as the woman who had made a false rape allegation against himself, and the defence came into possession of this evidence. This rapidly led to the collapse of the convictions of the two accused and they were released from prison. Eventually on 1 December 2005 the Court of Criminal Appeal in Ireland certified that Wall had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.^[2] McCabe had died in December 2002.

The Ryan Report, 2009

On 20 May 2009, the Irish government report released its report from the "The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse", known as the Ryan Report. The report noted that orders of nuns, such as Sisters of Mercy, saw "much less" sexual abuse of children than that which was identified in other Roman Catholic facilities, but
that other forms of abuse occurred.^[3]

Compensation

 In December 2009, the Sisters announced that they would contribute an additional 128 million euros to the fund to compensate victims. This was in addition to the previously agreed 127.5 million euro offer that the Irish government had formed with the Catholic Orders as a whole.^[4]

 ^{en.wikipedia.org/.../Abuse_scandal_in_the_Sisters_of_Mercy}