Child predators never retire.
A story out of Ireland today reinforces that point: serial child predator and former priest Oliver O’Grady was released from prison—again. We say “again” because this latest jail sentence was a result of his ninth conviction for sex crimes against children in California and the EU, including sexual assault and the possession and trafficking of child pornography. Given past remarks and prolific history of abuse, it’s safe to assume O’Grady has no intention of stopping—although he is quick to tell the media differently.
Jeff Anderson and Associates’ work in exposing O’Grady’s crimes is featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Deliver Us from Evil,” which chronicles O’Grady’s path of predation across California. Filmmaker Amy Berg was also able to get O’Grady to sit down for extensive on-camera interviews, shining a light into the twisted world of a child sex predator. The 2006 documentary can be viewed via numerous streaming services.
Our history of exposing Irish-born and trained priest Oliver O’Grady and helping his survivors goes back more than 25 years, when we were asked to help two of his survivors in a civil case against O’Grady and the Diocese of Stockton. Revelations we uncovered in that trial included the hands-on role that now-Cardinal Roger Mahony had in protecting and transferring O’Grady when allegations and victims came forward. Our investigation also uncovered that fact that O’Grady was a prolific abuser of children of all ages. He assaulted boys and girls. He assaulted infants. He assaulted young children. He assaulted teenagers. There is really no telling how much damage O’Grady has left in his wake, and no telling how much more he is capable of.
In 1993, O’Grady was convicted of “lewd and lascivious acts against children” in California. After the civil trial—which ended in 1998 with a $30 million settlement against the Diocese of Stockton for covering up the cleric’s crimes—O’Grady was eventually released from prison and deported in 2000. He fled to Europe, where he has been repeatedly arrested in various EU countries. In fact, when Deliver Us from Evil screened in the Netherlands, parents were shocked to see that “Brother Francis,” the man they knew as the children’s party coordinator at a local McDonalds, was the convicted former priest who admitted to molesting dozens of children. When local authorities were sent to question him, O’Grady fled to Ireland, but not without leaving his laptop on the plane—a laptop full of child pornography.
Even as O’Grady has insisted that he is not a danger, his arrests keep mounting, culminating with the latest 19-month sentence.
As long as O’Grady is able to freely roam the streets, he is a threat to children. He will never quit, never retire, and never be safe around children or technology.