RTE APOLOGISES TO AHASCRASGH PRIEST

Date Published: 07-Oct-2011

RTÉ has unreservedly apologised to a Galway priest wrongly accused of raping a Kenyan girl and fathering her child.

In a Primetime Investigates programme broadcast last May, it was claimed that Fr. Kevin Reynolds of Ahascragh raped an underage girl in Kenya in 1982 and fathered her child.

RTÉ says the alleged victim and her daughter were interviewed for the programme to corroborate the allegations against Fr. Reynolds.

RTÉ says it now accepts that the allegations made by Primetime against Fr. Reynolds are baseless, without foundation and untrue.

The broadcaster has publicly apologised to the priest stating that he had an unblemished 40 year career in the priesthood.

It says Fr. Reynolds is a priest of the utmost integrity who has made a valuable contribution to society in Kenya and Ireland.