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Cornwell damned the conspiracy theory but in the process produced an unforgettable picture of the sordid goings-on at a place meant to be God’s business address on earth.Follain, who pays lavish tribute to Cornwell in the acknowledgements, tries to pull off the same trick. So he eschews the headline-making controversy and instead establishes the case for the deaths being what they were officially reported as, but he then crucifies the Vatican for its handling of both the investigation and its inhuman treatment of first young Tornay and then his grieving family. Along the way we meet some very unsavoury church officials indeed – cynical, power-hungry princes, puffed up with self-importance who never for one moment entertain a thought of God. They are happy to lie, cover-up and manipulate the ageing, infirm and often plain senile Pope John Paul II in order to protect their own backs.Though it is not his aim, Follain makes a powerful case for two immediate reforms. The first is that, like every other organisation in the world, the Catholic Church should make its MD retire when he is no longer up to the job rather than force him to die in office. The last pope to hand over St Peter’s keys this side of the grave was Celestius V at the end of the 13th century.

What possible spiritual succour is there for Catholics in watching successive old men killed off by a post whose demands would make a 25-year-old blanche? The only beneficiaries, as John Follain makes plain, are the cardinals and monsignori who run the curia – or Vatican administration – who get to do whatever they like (and their appetites are seemingly inexhaustible) in the name of a pope who is drifting in and out of consciousness up in the papal apartments.And the second is that an international community which has signed up to an obligation to uphold basic human rights should insist that everyday running of the Vatican City State be handed over to competent Italian authorities. The Pope and his inner circle could be given diplomatic immunity, to protect their freedoms, but reform is urgently needed to allow full and independent judicial enquiries into such incidents as the deaths of the Estermanns and Tornay. Try as she might, Tornay’s mother has still not been given any documents relating to the death of her son. Anywhere else in Europe, she could appeal to her MP or the courts for help in righting this injustice, but the Vatican is the world’s last absolute monarchy and the Pope has not so far heard – or been allowed by his courtiers to hear – her anguished pleas.This book is the latest in a long line of powerful indictments of what goes on behind the Leonine Walls that encircle the Vatican. Follain may lack a little of Cornwell’s finesse, but he has produced a case that any other global institution would feel duty bound publicly to address. As it is, as I’m sure he realises, the Vatican will simply sweep his efforts under an already lumpy carpet and presume on the faith of Catholics to keep people in the pews docile.

But as the recent revelations about the activities of paedophile priests have been making all too plain, a new age of democracy and accountability is slowing taking hold of the Catholic Church. Follain’s book significantly adds to the pressure to root out corruption and its ungodly perpetrators.. “Any complaints?” he would chirrup; “No Sir!” was the invariable reply Almost invariable. One cell was a Gehenna of soiled underpants and urine whose occupant offered him a less than sunny “Fuck off!” Scott was not so much shocked as puzzled. He asked the colour sergeant why the man had not replied correctly. “The colour sergeant’s answer rang out loud, clear and immediate, ‘Because he didn’t want to, Sir’.” This proved formative.