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Infamous “Elvis” priest Tony Walsh has been enjoying his freedom for two years – because the Director of Public Prosecutions still has not decided if he should face fresh abuse charges.
Sources have confirmed to the Star that gardai sent a massive file about the convicted sex offender to the DPP in 2004.
But no decision has yet been made on possible charges.
Gardai carried out a new investigation after around a dozen people came forward with sex abuse allegations in late 2003.
The huge file was then sent to the DPP with recommendations that Walsh – who has already served a jail sentence for abusing young boys – face new charges of sexual assault.
The Star has learned that around a dozen people came forward to make the latest allegations against the 52-year-old after gardai began a fresh probe of allegations of abuse by priests in Dublin in the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s understood the allegations range from sexual assault to rape.
The wide-ranging probe – which is still under way – is focusing on whether members of the Catholic Church colluded to shield paedophile priests and other clerics.
But the special garda team, drawn from the national Bureau of Criminal Investigation, is also investigating direct claims of abuse.
Gardai set up a special phone line for anyone wanting to make allegations, and it is understood the accusations against Walsh came as a result of their appeal for information.
Walsh, a former member of the All-Priests Show, was jailed for 10 years in 1997 for offences against young boys.
His sentence was reduced on appeal to six years – and he was freed from the Curragh prison in Co Kildare last May.
In 2003, The Star revealed that the former priest had been staying at a house in Dublin’s North Circular Road since he was released from prison.
His bedsit flat is barely 200 yards from the Phoenix Par, where he raped a nine-year-old boy.
His victim, now in his late 30s, broke his silence to tell of the Phoenix Park ordeal in a harrowing RTE “Prime Time” investigation of paedophiles in the Catholic Church.
He told how Walsh brought him to a cave in the sprawling park and carried out a violent rape on a dirty mattress.
The victim recalled that Walsh used a purple clerical garment to clean the boy when he had finished raping him.
In 1992, a special Church commission recommended that Walsh be kicked out of the priesthood.
Walsh appealed the decision to Rome – and he was eventually expelled in 1995.
Michael O’Toole, Crime Correspondent, The Star
