Convicted sex offender ex-priest moves across city

THE former priest and convicted sex offender who left his Barna residence last week following widespread publicity over his identity, is now understood to have moved into the Ballybane area.

Patrick McCabe (78), who was convicted last year of sexually assaulting five teenagers over 30 years ago, has moved into an apartment in the Monivea Road area of Ballybane over the past week, the Galway City Tribune has learned.

Now laicised, McCabe, was released from prison earlier this year, after serving part of an 18 month sentence for the sex assault offences – up until the middle of last week, he had been living in the Thornberry Estate in Barna, for some time.

McCabe is understood to have moved into a private apartment close to the Monivea Road area late last week but already there have been calls for such individuals to be closely monitored by Gardaí.

Local councillor Terry O’Flaherty told the Galway City Tribune that quite obviously there had to be concerns when such individuals moved into an area where many families lived with young children.

“First and foremost, I would ask the Gardaí to operate a zero tolerance policy in relation to the monitoring of sex offenders.

“I do know that the Gardaí are limited in what they are allowed to do in terms of notifying local communities about such people, but we really do trust them to keep a very close watch on these individuals,” said Cllr O’Flaherty.

She also called on politicians and the Minister for Justice to closely examine the possibility of bringing in a law – similar to the UK and USA – where it would be legally possible to identify the presence of a sex offender in a particular area.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.