A BISHOP has sent a letter to primary schools and teachers to warn them of a convicted paedophile ex-priest living in the Irish city.
The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan sent the letter to local schools to warn them former priest Oliver O'Grady was living in the Waterford City area.
O'Grady admitted to sexually abusing children while serving as a parish priest in California from 1973 onwards, and in 1993 he was convicted for molesting two brothers over a 10-year period while in the US, and served a seven-year sentence before being deported back to Ireland.
In a letter seen by Irish news site TheJournal.ie, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan sent a letter out on December 21 2017 in which he advised priests and teachers in the area, “especially those working in any way with children”, to be on the lookout for O’Grady, whom he describes as an ”extremely dangerous paedophile."
The letter stated that O’Grady was 'actively seeking victims in our midst.'
"Please advise your safeguarding representatives and all your parish groups, especially those working in any way with children, to be aware that this man continues to be an evil menace to innocent children.
“If this man is seen in your parish please notify Bishop’s House as soon as possible.”
The Bishop said in the letter that he had informed gardaí of O’Grady’s recent activities, according to the site.
Previously, O'Grady featured in documentary Deliver Us from Evil - in which he admitted abusing 25 children while in the US - spoke about his feelings towards children.
In one segment filmed in a playground, he says: "If they said to me ‘Do you feel aroused when you see women?’ I’d say no.
"‘Do you feel aroused when you see men?’ I’d say no.
“‘Do you feel aroused when you see children?’ Well, maybe.
"‘How about children who are in swimsuits?’ I’d say yes.
"'How about children in underwear? [Nodding] yeah.
"How about if you thought you saw children naked? I'd say mmhm, yeah."
In February 2010, O’Grady left his laptop on an Aer Lingus flight and a large amount of images were found of children as young as two years of age being abused.
He was convicted of possessing those images, and sentenced to three years in prison in January 2011.
In 2016 he told The Sun that he wants his history of abusing children removed from the internet, saying:
“I am trying to see if I can get a lot of that downplayed or taken off if I can because all you have to do is give people my name, they look at the internet and they react.
“I’ve made some enquiries about it but that is all I can say about it now. It’s not an easy thing to do.”
