The convicted paedophile, Father Brendan Smyth, has had a parole application turned down by the prison authorities in the Northern Ireland Office according to his solicitor Mr Denis Moloney. Father Smyth has instructed Mr Moloney not to appeal the decision. He has learned, however, that he will be released from Magilligan prison, Co Derry, two days before this coming Christmas.
By then he will have served 21/2 years on child sex abuse charges. In June 1994 he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. In September last year he was sentenced to a further three years in jail after he pleaded guilty to 26 charges of sex abuse offences in Northern Ireland over a 20-year period.
