JNN 18 Dec 2010 : The Vatican covered up the child abuse cases of dangerous former pedophile priest Tony Walsh in Ireland, a new investigative report says.

The report strongly criticizes the actions of the Vatican and Dublin church authorities for their failure to deal with Walsh.

Walsh, a former Catholic priest, sexually abused hundreds of children in Ireland over almost two decades.

A state-ordered investigation into Dublin Archdiocese cover-ups found last year that Catholic officials shielded scores of priests from criminal investigation over several decades and did not report any crimes to the police until 1995. The findings sent shockwaves through the church and forced three Irish bishops to resign.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said that Walsh was another Brendan Smyth who should have been dealt with much earlier.

“Tony Walsh is an example of the classic serial pedophile on the same level as Brendan Smyth. The first lesson to be learned is the only way to deal with people like him is to stop them immediately. Procrastination and negotiation are part of the climate in which such pedophiles flourish,” he said.

Smyth was a Catholic priest who became notorious as a child molester and used his position in the Church to gain access to his victims.

Over a period of over 40 years, Smyth sexually abused and indecently assaulted over 100 children in parishes in the Irish cities of Belfast and Dublin as well as in the US.