'Ogre' paedophile was left to prey on children in Africa as his Irish crimes were covered up

Extra.ie​

9 hours ago

A lifelong predatory paedophile was left free to prey on children in Africa for decades as his superiors in Ireland covered up his crimes back home, an Extra.ie investigation reveals.
Brother Aidan Clohessy, 85, was described by a judge this week as 'an ogre' who 'secretly carried out atrocities' in Ireland while being sentenced to more than five years in prison.
In mitigation, lawyers for the former school principal told Dublin Central Criminal Court that Clohessy led a mission in Malawi to develop 'mental health services'. Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins, Dublin.
However, Extra.ie can reveal that, in the lead-up to his prosecution, Clohessy's superiors in the St John of God order spent more than €3million on settling civil cases.
These cases involve ex-pupils of Clohessy in Dublin and former street children in Malawi in southeastern Africa. Up to 20 cases from Malawi have been settled and a similar amount are pending.
All settlements were made without any admission of liability. Some of those who received civil compensation from the St John of God order still had to go through the trauma of testifying in court because Clohessy pleaded not guilty. Aidan Clohessy. Pic: Seán Dwyer 20/05/25
Clohessy, who was the principal of St Augustine's in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, from the early 1970s until 1993, was jailed for a total of five years and four months this week after he was convicted of sexually abusing six Irish boys at the special needs school between 1969 and 1989.
Before Clohessy's trials in Dublin, Extra.ie travelled to Malawi to speak with victims there, who detailed horrific abuse they suffered at the hands of the now-convicted paedophile.
'Sometimes he raped us, sometimes he played with our private parts, sometimes he beat us,' Stephen Chiumia said. 'Most of the things he was doing, he was doing when we went to the bathroom. He would take us to the bathroom, one after the other.' Pic: Getty Images
Mr Chiumia was one of many street children Clohessy brought to live in his home in Malawi. At the time, Clohessy's superiors in Ireland were reassuring the authorities here that he had no access to children.
Another alleged victim who lived with Clohessy in Malawi, Makaiko Banda Chimaliro, told Extra.ie: 'What makes me angry is the fact that someone in Ireland knew that he was a risk to us and they still decided to send him to Malawi to do the same work where he was exposed to more kids.
'Sometimes I even feel like I would have been better off as a street kid compared to the way I was abused.' Saint John of God: Logo. Pic: File
Clohessy remained in Malawi from 1993 until 2012 when he was withdrawn overnight amid a Vatican investigation, called a Canonical inquiry. The Vatican and Clohessy's order have refused to comment on this inquiry.
No one at St John of God's services in Malawi was told why Clohessy was suddenly recalled without notice.
'There wasn't even a single rumour,' St John of God's then clinical director, Harrison Chilale, told Extra.ie in 2017. No effort was made to trace those put at risk in Malawi – until Extra.ie tracked them down. 'Ogre' Clohessy. Pic: Collins Courts
The cover-up of Clohessy's past by his order was so successful he was able to lie to international funders, telling them he had never been accused of abuse, securing more than €1m in funding for St John of God's children's projects in Malawi run by Clohessy.
In 2010, Clohessy's work with children in Malawi was the subject of a documentary called The Warm Heart of Africa (Croi Te Na hAfraice), which aired on TG4.
'There was a time when everywhere you went, you were meeting children who were begging.
'You could see that they were suffering,' Clohessy told the programme.
'We decided that St John of God should take leadership. People literally went out onto the streets to identify the children, and then they'd invite them to come back to hear their story.'
Even as this programme aired on TV, St John of God was still receiving new abuse complaints about Clohessy from his former Irish pupils at St Augustine's, but these were kept under wraps, and he was left unsupervised to continue living and working with children in Malawi.
Clohessy sought to use his time in Malawi to seek a lower sentence in mitigation. Outlining his role in establishing a mission in Malawi, his barrister, Ronan Kennedy, told the court his client 'devoted a lot of his life to serving others'.
'He is a person who has, despite his failings, made some contribution to society,' Mr Kennedy said. He added that Clohessy lived a 'humble and quiet existence' and still 'lives in service of others' by tending to the 11 elderly members of the St John of God order resident in Stillorgan.
Mr Kennedy also sought leniency on the basis that his client had been 'subject to significant adverse publicity in the national media'.
'In many respects, he was already condemned and judged in the court of public opinion before he was ever tried in this court,' he said. Mr Kennedy also pointed to the fact that his client 'didn't stand in the way' of the civil cases being 'dealt with'.
Clohessy, with an address at the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, Granada, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, was convicted of 19 counts of indecent assault following two back-to-back trials held behind closed doors last month.
At his sentencing hearings this week, Clohessy's barrister told the court his client would not be appealing the verdicts.
Mr Kennedy said this would 'bring some closure' to the victims. But Clohessy has never apologised or expressed any remorse for his actions. The historical case against the former school principal – one of the oldest to ever be prosecuted in Ireland – followed a near-decadelong campaign by this website.
Our investigation, the first part of which was published in 2018, tracked down new victims in Ireland and spoke with street children in Africa who told us that the brother frequently watched them bathe in a purpose-built shower block.
This coverage prompted more victims to come forward, ultimately leading to the successful Garda investigation and State prosecution, which concluded this week. But the jailing of Clohessy is only part of a much wider, international cover-up that can now be told in full for the first time.
During Clohessy's trials, jury members remained ignorant of the cover-up of the risk he posed for decades in Africa by his superiors.
Their actions in keeping a lid on the danger Clohessy posed to children enabled him to remain living with minors in Malawi.
The court was also unaware that, in the lead-up to his trial, St John of God spent millions settling dozens of civil cases against Clohessy and the order.
The cases being taken by Dublin law firm Coleman Legal are unprecedented in that no African abuse victim had ever before sought recompense for abuse in an Irish court.
These civil cases are also being taken against the leader of St John of God in Ireland, Br Donatus Forkan, who dispatched Clohessy to Africa after he abused children here.
He frequently visited Clohessy in Malawi, where he was known widely simply as Br Aidan, as secret settlements were paid out to victims here.
Unusually, Clohessy – whose top criminal defence team was privately funded – took the stand himself. Clohessy denied each charge, often with two-word answers, delivered with a shrug.
'That's incorrect,' he said repeatedly. 'Didn't happen.'
At times, he chuckled as if he found some questions ridiculous, and he was frequently heard humming to himself in court. This confident performance was in marked contrast to the testimony of victims.
Describing the abuse they suffered, they broke down emotionally, cowering from the nearby presence of their tormentor. One of them, Kildare man Joe Devine, suffered a panic attack and collapsed to the floor under cross-examination by Clohessy's defence, requiring an ambulance.
The episode delayed proceedings for several days and could have jeopardised the entire trial if the key witness had not been able to resume his evidence.
When Extra.ie first confronted Clohessy in January 2018, he denied any wrongdoing, although he acknowledged his order had made settlements to his former pupils.
'I don't think anybody is guilty until they're proved guilty,' he said at the time. 'Innocent until proven guilty.'
Now, after decades of silence, those abused by Clohessy can finally speak freely. They include Wayne Farrell, a former pupil of St Augustine's school in Dublin, where Clohessy was principal until he was sent to Malawi in 1993.
'Life will never be the same. The memories are always there, and the damage can never be repaired,' he told Extra.ie.
Mr Farrell said he was appalled to learn Clohessy had been sent to Malawi after abusing him here. 'I was in shock when I heard about Africa. He's a predator. He picked on weak people. Frail people,' he added.
The St John of God order refused to respond to detailed queries about the number of alleged abuse cases involving Clohessy or how much it has paid out in settlements to victims. 'There is no comment,' a spokesman said.