A disgraced former priest who was defrocked in 2002 over allegations of molestation in his New Jersey diocese has found a new job that is raising eyebrows: three months after he lost his clerical post he was given a job as a TSA officer.
According to the Daily Mail, Thomas Harkins's duties include doing pat downs on children, which reports say proves the agency failed to do a thorough background check when it offered him a position at Philadelphia International Airport.
The 65-year-old was accused of sexually abusing two grade-school girls, which is information that was apparently not shared in the wake of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. The urgent need for agents at the time meant that staff were being hired without being put under sufficient scrutiny, a TSA agent told the Mail.
50,000 new security workers were employed at the same time as Harkins, a TSA official told philly.com, many of whom were hired without checks.
Hawkins was reportedly hired the following year, just months after molestation allegations saw him ousted from the church. Once employed by the TSA he proved so skilled at his job that he quickly secured a promotion.
Although never prosecuted, his civil lawsuits were settled for $195,000 and Harkins was thereafter barred from presenting himself as a priest. He was also reportedly banned from attending church services.
A third young girl, who was aged 11 at the time in question, has since filed a lawsuit claiming that she was also one of Harkins' victims. Harkins allegedly abused her 10-15 times in 1980 and 1981, including in his bedroom in the rectory.
Hearing of Harkins' new posting, the church wrote to the TSA in 2003, informing officials of the allegations made against him, but still he remained on the staff payroll.
The TSA took no actions because 'an allegation alone does not warrant dismissal or automatically disqualify applicants from employment with the TSA,' spokesperson Ann Davis told the press.
Harkins' current role at the airport reportedly involves overseeing screening operations for checked luggage and earns him a salary of $75,600 a year.
Harkins is one of 4,300 priests accused of molestation across the United States, according to bishop-accountability.org, an organization that tracks clergy abuse.
'They should know who they’re hiring,' Karen Polesir a Philadelphia spokeswoman with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) told the press. 'As the public, we are screened to our underwear getting on a plane, and yet they hire a man like that.'
6 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.hunter933 | Oct 04, 2012, 11:33 AM EDT
They hired 50,000 workers to tell us to take our shoes off?
TisEyerish | Oct 04, 2012, 07:34 AM EDT
I don't even know how to respond to this situation. The man should NOT have access to children at all. Period. Whether found guilty or not, the allegations are on the table and should be taken seriously. He is being paid for doing what he enjoys most. As far as the background checks go, this situation leaves me with little faith in our "security" system. It's downright frightening. Who else is part of the "team"? Scary thought.
Searlit | Oct 03, 2012, 03:46 PM EDT
The thing that makes this worse is being an innocent traveler and having to be patted down would be horrendous and humiliating enough - knowing that these TSA agents didn't have proper background checks is terrifying, since these people are purportedly there for security reasons. Just what are they keeping safe, the manufacturers and investors in the x-ray, I mean, 'scanners'?
Seanmor | Oct 03, 2012, 03:27 PM EDT
The 3rd last paragraph tstates, "an allegation does not warrant dismissal". The fact remains that this former priest has NOT been convicted of any crime. In any case,when it comes to security in air travel,the one-size-fits-all policy is most unfair to the 99% plus of air travelers who are respectable, trustworthy and law-abiding but are presumed to be potential terrorists as soon as they buy an airline ticked - a very erroneous presumtion indeed.
Searlit | Oct 03, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT
"$75,600 a year." It sounds like he's being rewarded for being an abuser. When half of Americans make less than $56,000 a year, it seems the country has turned upside down. Decent honest law-biding people are given a ticket to a lower standard of living, while criminals are given jobs that give them access to innocent children and a salary that allows them to live a better standard of living. Why? Because all the corporations involved in TSA care about is money.
charlesm | Oct 03, 2012, 10:02 AM EDT
Three comments: 1. he was "banned from attending church services"? By whom? How is this "enforced"? 2. accused and charged for actions 30 years ago. He was then 35 years old. Are these actions likely to influence or his actions 30 years later? 3. Is 'patting down' in a public space as an airort in the sight of hundreds of witnesses on the same level as 'groping' a teen (privately?) a generation ago? Sounds to me like the media making a mountain out of a molehill, probably to attract the prurient curiosity of the public.