Two private detectives are in Ireland searching for defrocked Irish paedophile priest Oliver O'Grady to serve him with civil actions by brothers who claim they were sexually assaulted by him in California.

US law firm Manly, McGuire & Stewart in California, which specialises in representing clerical child abuse victims, has hired two British private eyes to find O'Grady. They are optimistic he will have been located by the end of this week.

O'Grady was deported to Ireland in 2000 after spending seven years in prison in the US for sexually abusing two boys. The former priest obtained notoriety when he agreed to feature in a documentary discussing his sexual abuse of children.

Deliver Us From Evil was released in 2006 and featured many of O'Grady's victims discussing the impact his abuse has had on their lives. The film, which was nominated for an Oscar, also showed how high-ranking clergy in California continuously moved O'Grady from one parish to another over several years when allegations of sexual abuse began to emerge.

In depositions, O'Grady has admitted to sexually abusing many children but has only been convicted of abuse against two boys.

Attorney Patrick Wall told the Sunday Tribune: "These two new cases are brothers who we claim were sodomized and raped in a church by O'Grady while he was based at the Church of the Presentation in Stockton, California. One was aged seven, the other was 11.

"We believe another child was assaulted at that church by O'Grady. He [the child] went on to burn the church to the ground and is now in an institution himself. We're not taking a case on behalf of that person but it's a very sad situation," he said.

The law firm is also attempting to sue the diocese of Stockton and has already served the former priest at his previous residence in Dublin with three multimillion dollar civil lawsuits by people who allege he sexually assaulted them as children.

In one case, it is alleged O'Grady sexually abused a child while he was a seminarian at St Patrick's Seminary in Thurles, Co Tipperary while the two others cases concern alleged sexual assaults in the US. O'Grady was sent to the US soon after he was ordained a priest.

The law firm has also attempted to sue the archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, claiming it was aware that O'Grady was a child abuser when the priest was sent overseas. This case was dismissed in 2006. The firm is appealing the decision.

In May 2005, the Stockton diocese paid out $3m (¤2.5m) to a former altar boy abused by O'Grady. The diocese has paid out a total of $14m (¤10.2m) to his victims.