Notorious former priest back in Ireland after Portuguese jail term

An unremarkable elderly traveller arriving in Ireland last month would have drawn little notice from most observers. Authorities, however, were already tracking the return of Oliver O’Grady, the 81-year-old former priest whose long record of child sexual offences has spanned continents and decades.

O’Grady completed a one-year sentence at Carregueira Prison near Lisbon before flying home. Portuguese police identified him at Lisbon Airport and immediately notified Gardaí in Dublin that the convicted sex offender was en route. He reportedly arrived with a single bag and no electronic devices.

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He is now subject to Ireland’s sex offender notification requirements. O’Grady has given Gardaí an address understood to be a homeless shelter in Dublin and must keep them informed of his movements. Any breach of the conditions can lead to further criminal proceedings.

The latest conviction followed his extradition from Ireland under a European Arrest Warrant. A Portuguese court had found him guilty in his absence in 2024 of possessing hundreds of images and dozens of videos of child sexual abuse. Numbers reported in coverage of the case have varied, with some accounts citing around 900 images and 29 videos and others referring to more than 9,000 images.

Originally from Limerick, O’Grady entered the priesthood and moved to the United States. In 1993 a California court convicted him of lewd acts against children after he repeatedly abused two brothers. He served seven years of a longer sentence before being deported to Ireland in 2001. His crimes in California were later examined in the documentary Deliver Us From Evil.

Further Irish convictions followed. In 2012 he received a three-year sentence after approximately 280,000 child sexual abuse images and 1,000 video files were found on devices he had left behind. After release he spent time in Amsterdam before returning to Ireland. In 2020 a Waterford jury convicted him of possessing a sexually explicit video involving an underage girl; he was sentenced to 22 months. That investigation began when a former housemate discovered the material and contacted Gardaí.

O’Grady’s pattern of offending has repeatedly brought him to the attention of police and courts in multiple jurisdictions. Following his release from the Portuguese prison he is once again living in Ireland under formal monitoring requirements designed to manage the risk he continues to present.