Child-abusing priest living freely in Spain

Bill Carney, 60, was outed in a report last November, which stated that he had abused more than 30 children in Ireland.

It has now emerged that the former cleric, who was named as one of the worst abusers in the Murphy report, is living in Gran Canaria under the noses of the Spanish authorities.

For ten years before the release of the Murphy Report, Carney lived quietly in St Andrews, Fife, running a bed and breakfast he owned with his wife Joan.

She was completely unaware of his sordid past and did not find out about it until her son flew to where the couple were on holiday last November to break the news of the revelations in the Murphy Report.

She immediately left Carney and returned to Scotland, and now plans to move to England.

But Carney has now been found living a normal life in the Canary Islands, where the Spanish police are oblivious that a convicted abuser is in their midst.

Denying the abuse claims, Carney said: "I have read the report six or seven times and would dispute all of it, except that I have been convicted of two charges in 1993.

"The matter was put by the court and I was sentenced.

"Twenty-six years later and I continue to get my life back together, one day at a time. That's all I have to say."

But Bridie Dwyer, whose son Paul killed himself at the age of 31 as he struggled with the aftermath of Carney's abuse, has spoken of her disgust that the former priest is free to life his life abroad.

Mrs Dwyer said: "I felt revulsion to see him doing so well."