Defrocked paedophile priest Oliver O'Grady has left Ireland and moved to Holland within the past two weeks, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

O'Grady was deported to Ireland from the US?in 2000 after spending seven years in prison for sexually abusing two boys. The former priest, who is considered one of the world's most dangerous clerical sexual predators, obtained notoriety when he agreed to feature in Deliver Us From Evil, a 2006 documentary about his history as an abuser.

The former priest was trained as a seminarian in Thurles and was sent to California in 1971 where he served in the diocese of Stockton and Malone until he was charged in 1993 with sexually abusing two brothers. In a 2005 video taped deposition, O'Grady revealed he had abused as many as 25 children in and around northern California. He is entitled to a substantial pension from the Diocese of Stockton and Malone, which would have been paid out last year.

O'Grady was not placed on the Irish sex offenders register because his conviction pre-dated the establishment of the register in 2001 and because his crimes were committed in another jurisdiction. He voluntarily agreed, however, to inform gardaí of where he was living.

Informed sources have confirmed that O'Grady told gardaí he was moving from Limerick to Holland. Gardaí have informed the authorities in Holland. It is believed a reason O'Grady left is because private detectives have been trying to track him down in Limerick. The detectives are representing a US lawyer taking three civil cases against O'Grady for the sexual abuse of two brothers and their sisters.