This article is from page 6 of the 2012-04-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE family of a Clarecastle Christian Brother accused on RTÉ of child abuse while serving a missionary in Africa have renewed their call for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) for an inquiry to be launched by the Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte.
This demand for justice for Brother Gerard Dillon has been sounded out in the wake of the leaking of the BAI report into RTÉ’s defaming of Galway priest, Fr Kevin Reynolds, in the Primetime Investigates ‘Mission to Prey’ programme.
This programme also aired a claim by South African man Tyrne Selmon that he was abused by Brother Dillon.
Amanda Dillon, a grand-niece of Brother Dillon who died in 2005, has said there needs to be a full investigation into the research carried out by RTÉ.
She also reiterated her family’s call on the State broadcaster to provide evidence of the accusations made against Brother Dillon.
“We’ve had no solid evidence come back to us about how they managed to source this abused person who has never made his allegation in the public domain ever before, nor to the school, nor to the brothers, nor to the police.
“That allegation has just never, ever been made,” said Ms Dillon.
A spokesperson for the BAI has said it is “in correspondence with the family” and “it doesn’t comment on the correspondence as it relates to the families only”.
However, the Dillon family have been told that their complaint would not be investigated because it was made over 30 days after the RTÉ programme was broadcast last year.
“To not look at our complaint on the basis of what we would perceive as a small technicality, that really doesn’t feel fair and doesn’t seem balanced against the huge fallout from the programme,” said Ms Dillon.