Child rapist and priest lover share jail cell
Jun 28 2007
by Adrian Butler, Liverpool Echo
A NOTORIOUS paedophile who raped a 12-year-old Liverpool girl shared a prison cell with his Catholic priest lover.
William Adams and Father Jeremiah McGrath shared the cell on Walton Jail’s vulnerable prisoners’ wing for more than a week.
It is understood the men, who were on the special wing to protect them from other prisoners, tricked staff by pretending to strike up a friendship.
When guards realised the pair were lovers they were moved immediately.
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The ECHO understands the Catholic priest was moved to Wymott prison, near Preston, on Monday.
Today a Merseyside MP promised to demand answers from Gordon Brown’s new justice minister.
Adams was notorious in his native Northern Ireland before moving to Merseyside.
Earlier this month he was jailed for life after a court heard how he groomed and repeatedly raped a 12-year-old Liverpool schoolgirl.
McGrath, 64, broke his celibacy vow to have an affair with Adams.
The wealthy priest was sentenced to five years for bankrolling Adams’s perversions.
He paid for a holiday to Blackpool where his paedophile boyfriend raped the girl every night.
McGrath knew about Adams’s past and visited him in prison.
A prison source said: “They were on protection when they first came to us and it seems like they were able to manipulate things.
“It is easier to have people who get along in a cell to prevent confrontation and they pretended to be mates.
“Clearly there is a difference between cons who are mates and those who are lovers.
“The guards were furious when they twigged what had been going on.
“Prisoners are allocated to cells for a variety of reasons like length of sentence and the type of work they are doing inside.
“There is no real policy on who should share on a particular wing.
“Obviously it was highly inappropriate for them to be in the same cell.”
Bootle Labour MP Joe Benton said: “ I will be putting questions about this and seeking a meeting on it.”
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