Paedophile ex-priest to be extradited to Portugal after court ruling
O'Grady – who was featured in an Oscar-nominated documentary – will be jailed for having more than 9,000 images and 29 videos of child sexual abuse.
The 80-year-old, of Rostrevor Court, Macken Street, Dublin 2, was arrested on January 21 on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued by a court in Faro, Portugal. Former priest and prolific child abuser Oliver O'Grady will be extradited to serve a one-year prison sentence in Portugal, the High Court has ruled. Pic: Collins Courts
The warrant states O'Grady was tried on a charge of possession of 'pornography of minors', convicted and sentenced to one year in prison in his absence by a Portuguese court after he failed to attend his trial on May 7 last year.
In opposing his surrender to Portugal, O'Grady complained his fair trial rights were not adequately protected in the process that led to his conviction. He said he had been unable to contact a lawyer appointed to defend him in Portugal.
He complained his surrender would be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms because of a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the Portuguese prison system. Judge Patrick McGrath at the High Court in Dublin found O'Grady's evidence to be 'disingenuous and self-serving' and said the former priest had tried to control proceedings. Pic: Getty Images
He said he spent time in the Prisional de Setubal in Portugal in October 2019 after he was arrested on foot with a European arrest warrant from Ireland.
He said that while incarcerated there, he was not provided with medication, facilities were unhygienic, and, as a segregated prisoner on remand in respect of sexual offences, he was abused and had apples thrown at him.
Judge Patrick McGrath at the High Court in Dublin found O'Grady's evidence to be 'disingenuous and self-serving' and said O'Grady had tried to control proceedings.
Portuguese authorities, through An Garda Síochána, notified O'Grady of his obligation to attend his trial and the consequences of failure to attend, the judge said.
He knew his inability to contact a lawyer did not excuse him from attendance, Judge McGrath said. O'Grady, from Limerick, has a long history of sexual offences against children.
In 1993 he was first convicted in California of lewd acts against children for repeatedly molesting two brothers.
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