Pressure was today piling on the Bishop of Derry over his involvement in an alleged compensation cover-up.

After revelations in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday over a settlement to an abuse victim, Dr Seamus Hegarty has confirmed that his diocese facilitated a confidentiality clause in an out-of-court settlement in 2000.

Dr Hegarty was one of three priests named in a confidential civil settlement after an eight-year-old girl was abused over a decade from 1979.

This newspaper today reports on the details of a second compensation settlement which the Bishop of Derry had knowledge of.

In 2004 £19,000 was awarded to a young man who made an allegation of a serious sexual assault against a Dungiven priest.

Meanwhile the sense of crisis in the Catholic church was deepening today after beleaguered Cardinal Sean Brady admitted he was sued by a young woman who accused a priest in his Armagh diocese of raping her. The woman was paid £45,000.