THE chair of the main publicly-funded charity run by St John of God – the order at the centre of damning abuse allegations involving dozens of children in Ireland and Africa – is also a key board member of the State agency responsible for protecting vulnerable minors.
The revelation has sparked calls for Charles Watchorn – a private sector finance executive who is the chair of St John of God Community Services (SJOG CS), having been a director since 2018 – to stand down from the board of Tusla.
Former HSE board member and CEO of the children’s charity Barnardos, Fergus Finlay said that, in light of damning revelations of abuse perpetrated by jailed serial paedophile Brother Aidan Clohessy, Mr Watchorn should have ‘no involvement whatsoever with the statutory agency that is responsible for the protection of children’.
Mr Finlay was speaking in the wake of a near-decade long investigation by the Irish Mail on Sunday into an international child abuse cover-up by the St John of God order.
Describing his role on his Linkedin profile, Mr Watchorn speaks of bringing ‘expertise in financial management and corporate governance’ to the charity that ‘guides our strategic direction and operational efficiency’. He also speaks of the importance of ‘integrity’ and ‘compliance’ with regulatory rules.
The profile reads: ‘My leadership extends to championing change and fostering a culture of accountability with the primary goal of enhancing the experience of our service users and ensuring the ethos of Saint John of God will be continually nurtured throughout the organisation.’
Mr Watchorn has also been a board member of Tusla since 2020, where he is chair of the agency’s Audit and Risk Committee.
According to Mr Finlay, membership of both boards is untenable, given the reported safeguarding concerns about the St John of God order.
He also said the head of the order, Br Donatus Forkan, ‘has really serious questions to answer about the protection of a child abuser and therefore about reckless endangerment.’
The former Labour Party advisor told the MoS: ‘If Charles Watchorn knows Br Forkan, and if he knows the role Br Forkan has allegedly played, then he has no place having any involvement whatsoever with the statutory agency that is responsible for the protection of children.’
The founder of abuse charity One in Four, former Amnesty International Ireland executive director Colm O’Gorman, added: ‘Given his role on the board of Tulsa, and the fact that he chairs its Audit and Risk Committee, it is difficult to imagine that Mr Watchorn is not alive to the significant issues which arise from how the order and Br Forkan managed complaints or suspicions of child sexual abuse perpetrated by Aidan Clohessy.
‘In that context, I would expect that Mr Watchorn would act to immediately address those concerns, including the issue of Br Forkan’s ongoing role in governance.’
Mr Watchorn did not respond personally to several attempts to contact him this week, via registered post, as well as emails via St John of God and Tusla.
Tusla also would not comment on concerns raised about Mr Watchorn’s dual role.
As part of the cover-up of Br Aidan Clohessy’s crimes, the predatory paedophile was dispatched to Malawi as the St John of God order secretly settled cases back home. Meanwhile, Clohessy, now 85, was left free to continue abusing in Africa fordecades.
Our reporting contributed to the recent prosecution of Clohessy, who was branded an ‘ogre’ by the judge who imprisoned him.
It has also sparked calls for the head of the St John of God order to step down and be criminally investigated for the reckless endangerment of children.
Aside from Mr Finlay and Mr O’Gorman, Kindernothilfe (KNH) – a leading Christian charity in Germany that funds St John of God’s work in Malawi – has also called for Br Forkan to resign.
A KNH spokesperson said last night: ‘We want to reiterate that our stance on the importance of independent and transparent investigations in child protection cases, both in general and in this particular case in has not changed. We still believe that an independent review of the roles of Donatus Forkan and other leaders in Br Aidan’s presence in Malawi would be the right step.’
Pressure on Br Forkan increased last week after Children’s Minister Norma Foley wrote to St John of God seeking assurances about its safeguarding standards.
Sinn Féin education spokesman Darren O’Rourke and Labour justice spokesman Alan Kelly have also called on Br Donatus Forkan to stand aside pending a criminal investigation.
Br Forkan dispatched Clohessy to Malawi in 1993 where he remained for two decades, working and living with children as the order secretly settled abuse claims from Irish victims.
All of the Irish claims relate to Clohessy’s time as principal of the order’s St Augustine’s School for special needs children in Blackrock, south Dublin, during the 1970s and 1980s.
Separately, the order has also privately settled cases taken by those who allege they were abused by Clohessy in Malawi.
As many of 20 such cases have been settled, without any admissions of liability, over the past year. Since Clohessy was jailed in June, dozens of further claimants have come forward in Malawi. All of the civil cases from African claimants, have been taken against Br Forkan, as well as Clohessy.
The victims claim Br Forkan’s actions in sending Clohessy to Malawi – and leaving him there for decades – put them in danger when they were children.
Some of the Malawi victims whose cases have been settled have spoken of their anger at being put at risk.
‘What makes me angry is the fact that someone in Ireland knew that he was a risk to us,’ Makaiko Banda Chimaliro told the MoS.
‘They still decided to send him to Malawi to do the same work where he was exposed to more kids. That makes me disappointed and angry at the authorities for doing that.’
Br Forkan remains on the board of the St John of God Hospitaller Services Group – the parent company that controls the order’s operations in Ireland, the UK and Malawi. He exerts considerable control over the order’s main Irish charity, St John of God Community Services, which receives more than €200m annually from the State.
These funds are used to care for thousands of vulnerable children and adults with an intellectual disability.
A spokesperson for St John of God Community Services said the organisation takes ‘their responsibilities on safeguarding very seriously’ and has ‘robust measures in place to ensure the ongoing safety and protection of those in our care’
The spokesperson did not comment on the dual Tusla and St John of God roles held by Mr Watchorn. However, the charity confirmed it has responded to Ms Foley’s letter and ‘outlined in detail the stringent measures in place in regard to the Children First Act 2015’.
A Tusla spokesperson said: ‘When Tusla suspects that a crime has been committed, and a child or children have been wilfully neglected or physically or sexually abused, Tusla notifies An Garda Síochána where they investigate the crime.’
michaelofarrell @protonmail.com