My uncle was Bishop Eamonn Casey and he started raping me when I was five years old.

• Patricia Donovan from Limerick, now over 60, speaks in a documentary
• If you have been affected by the details in this article, you can visit the Rape Crisis website or call the hotline on 0808 500 2222.

Bishop Eamonn Casey’s niece has spoken for the first time about how she was repeatedly raped by her paedophile uncle since she was five years old.

Patricia Donovan, now in her 60s, will speak in an RTÉ and Irish Mail documentary tonight, documenting the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of the bishop, who died in 2017.

In Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, she describes the “horror” of the “violence” he inflicted on her during his decade-long campaign of abuse. In it, she examines the numerous allegations against him during his time in the Catholic Church.

Patricia from Limerick remembers: “He had no fear of getting caught. He thought he could do what he wanted, when he wanted and how he wanted.”

“He was almost angry that I dared to fight him, that I dared to hurt him, that I dared to stop him. It made no difference.”

Patricia reported her allegations of sexual abuse in 2005. Casey, on the other hand, who was forced to resign as Bishop of Galway in 1992 when his affair with a distant American cousin came to light, was never charged or convicted of a sexual offense.

Her story is one of many new accounts of abuse by Casey that come to light in the documentary – including another allegation of sexual abuse of a child in the 1980s when he was Bishop of Galway – as well as allegations of numerous sexual relationships with women in the 1960s.

Over the course of his life, Casey was accused of a total of eight sexual assaults against children and adults.

The five allegations of child sexual abuse were made in all of the Irish dioceses where Casey served: Limerick, Galway and Kerry.

In 2021, the Diocese of Galway admitted that it was aware of all five allegations of child sexual abuse made against Casey, despite having issued a statement to the Irish Mail in 2019 claiming it was only aware of a single allegation.

When Casey died in March 2017, the Diocese of Galway decided to bury him in the Bishop’s Vault in Galway Cathedral.

In the documentary, Ian Elliott, former chairman of the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children, said he found Patricia’s complaint “entirely credible” when he first learned of it.

Elliott added that Casey was “a criminal, a sex offender.”

“The fact is that individuals have come forward and spoken about numerous sexual activities, some of which were consensual and some of which were not. Many of these involved very young people.”

“This is wrong and cannot be justified in any way. It should have stopped. The church should help and support those who are injured and those who are hurting. This is the highest priority.”

The documentary also reveals that the first sexual abuse complaint against Casey, originally made to the Diocese of Limerick, was “lost” when it was forwarded to the Diocese of Arundel in Brighton, England – where Casey was then working – in 2001. The complaint was also forwarded to the Vatican.

The receipt of this complaint and the potential child protection risks it posed should have resulted in his being suspended from duty in England pending further investigation. The complaint should also have been reported to the UK police.

However, none of these measures were taken and Father Casey, as he was then called, remained active in the service of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton for another four years.

A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton said: “Recent communications from RTE and the Diocese of Limerick indicate that a member of our diocese was informed of an allegation relating to offences against Bishop Eamonn Casey as early as 2001, four years earlier than we had previously thought.”

“If this allegation had been made today, the police would have been informed immediately. We are deeply disappointed that this course of action was apparently not taken in 2001.”

After being made aware of this earlier allegation by RTÉ, the diocese stated that it would launch an internal investigation to find out why this complaint was not recorded in its files.

“We have searched the diocesan records very thoroughly. Unfortunately, over time we have not been able to find any relevant written records or speak to anyone who could shed light on the communications of the Diocese of Limerick in 2001,” they added.

Casey’s move to the UK came after church leaders in Ireland were reluctant to accept him into a congregation after he had spent six years in various missions in Ecuador.

He moved to Ecuador after the dramatic revelation in 1992 that he had fathered a son with a distant American cousin, Annie Murphy, which meant he had to resign from the diocese of Galway.

Until 2001, when he was due to be suspended, Father Casey, as he was then known, was parish priest in the village of Staplefield in the parish of St Paul’s, Hayward Heath, in the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton from 1998 to 2005. In Staplefield he was vicar of an archparish with three churches and also chaplain of a 320-bed hospital.

Dr Casey was only suspended from duty when his niece, Mrs Donovan, came forward and reported him to the British police and the Gardai (Irish police) in 2005 for alleged sexual abuse.

The first known allegation of child sexual abuse against Bishop Casey was made in 2001 by another party. This woman, who had also later moved to London, alleged that she had been sexually abused twice by Father Casey during his time as chaplain of St Joseph’s Reformatory School in Limerick in 1956.

She later brought a claim for damages against Bishop Casey in the High Court, claiming that he sexually abused her in Limerick when she was 15. She was eventually awarded compensation by the Residential Institutions Redress Board.

The Vatican has now confirmed that it had banned Bishop Casey from exercising his office “before 2006.” This ban was officially renewed in 2007 following several complaints of child sexual abuse against him, including the 2001 complaint and the 2005 complaint from his niece Donovan.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Limerick confirmed: “In 2001, the Diocese of Limerick received the first complaint concerning Bishop Casey.”

The spokesman confirmed that the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton was informed by them of this complaint on 7 June 2001 and that the Papal Nuncio, who is responsible for transmitting these matters to Rome, and the Gardai were also informed.

The spokeswoman for the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton said her diocese responded quickly when the complaint was received in 2005 from Mrs Donovan, Bishop Casey’s niece.

“As a direct result of this allegation, nationally agreed protection protocols were implemented and support was offered to the individual concerned. The allegation was reported to the statutory authorities and Bishop Casey was promptly removed from public ministry,” they said.

The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton said it had not received any further child protection concerns during Father Casey’s stay.

When asked by RTE, the Archdiocese of Southwark and the Diocese of Westminster declined to comment on whether they had any allegations against Bishop Casey in connection with his time as a priest in London in the 1960s.

Father Casey was appointed to the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy Service in England in 1960 and held that position until 1969. In 1960 he was appointed chaplain to the parish of St Ethelbert in Berkshire and became the first chairman of Shelter, the UK housing charity. In 1963 he began working with the Catholic Housing Aid Society at the invitation of Cardinal Heenan, then Archbishop of Westminster.

His niece, Mrs Donovan, reported her allegations to the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton and British police in 2005, while Irish detectives also travelled to the UK to question her. The Irish Attorney General later instructed in August 2006 that no charges should be brought against her uncle. She has never received any compensation from the Church, but the Diocese of Galway has paid for her therapy.