Castleknock past pupils group forwarded abuse accusation to mailing list by mistake

Castleknock College past pupils union accidentally forwarded an email from a former student, accusing a priest who previously worked in the school of child abuse, to its entire mailing list.

The alumni group of the fee-paying west Dublin school apologised for forwarding the email to its members, which it said was a “human error”.

Last Friday, the group sent an email out to past pupils on foot of media reports about alleged sexual abuse by two priests from the Vincentian order, which runs the secondary boys school.

The email from the past pupils union said it was "deeply concerned" following the recent media reports, and had "expressed its concern" to Fr Paschal Scallon, president of Castleknock College and provincial of the Vincentian order.

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“The union extends its profound solidarity to any person who suffered abuse whilst a pupil at Castleknock College,” the email said.

The email was sent by president of the Castleknock alumni group Johnny Lynch.

Accusing individuals

In his email, he cautioned past pupils against accusing individuals of abuse or breaching the anonymity of survivors, in any discussions on social media.

“We understand the importance of forums such as WhatsApp or Facebook during lockdown as a means of communications,” Mr Lynch said.

“However, it is important that those who have suffered abuse have their anonymity protected and that no innocent person is wrongly accused or implicated in abuse, so appeal to all pastmen to be thoughtful and sensitive when using any social media platforms or open discussion forums.”

Mr Lynch said the union “does not have the necessary expertise to offer professional support”, but appealed to any abuse survivors to contact the Vincentian order or other support services.

In response, one past pupil sent an email to the alumni group naming a further priest who had worked in the school for 20 years, accusing him of allegedly abusing children.

The union then forwarded that email to its entire mailing list.

‘Sent in error’

In a statement to The Irish Times, a spokeswoman for the past pupils union confirmed the email was forwarded to its members due to a “human error”.

“The union has no knowledge of the information contained in the content which was sent in error,” she said. “The union believes that a relatively small proportion of union recipients have read the email that was sent in error. However, if The Irish Times were to publish an account of this error, this will have the consequence of most union members reading the content sent in error,” she said.

Any media reporting of the error would increase the potential “unjust reputational damage,” the spokeswoman said. “It is considered that any widening of the readership of the content sent in error could have these impacts,” she said.