FORMER PRIEST’S SENTENCE FOR ABUSING BOY REDUCED

TWO YEARS TAKEN OFF SENTENCE AFTER APPEAL OVER ERROR IN JUDGE’S REMARKS

A FORMER Roman Catholic priest given consecutive sentences for abusing two boys in the past twelve years has had his total prison sentence cut on appeal.

The 65-year-old was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of six counts of oral rape, defilement and sexual assault of a boy at his home between 2005 and 2006 when the victim was aged between 10 and eleven.

The man, who was a parish priest in Co Wicklow and served on the board of management of a local school, had denied the charges.

He was already serving a seven-year sentence for sexually abusing a different boy – and had been defrocked – when he was given an eight-year consecutive sentence by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy on May 15, 2017. His abuse of the boy in the Wicklow case (2007-2012) began shortly after his abuse of the boy in the present case came to an end in 2006.

The former priest successfully appealed his sentence on Monday over an apparent error in the sentencing judge’s remarks and, accordingly, had the final two years cut from his total term.

President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham said the sentencing judge had referred to three-and-a-half years as having been imposed in Wicklow rather than the seven years which had been imposed.

That raised the question as to whether the sentencing judge in the present case, who had decided to impose a consecutive term, had intended a global sentence of eleven-and-a-half years rather than the 15-year sentence that resulted.

Mr Justice Birmingham said counsel for the DPP had ‘very responsibly’ acknowledged the potential significance of what had occurred.

In a situation where the sentencing judge had expressly proceeded on the basis that the sentence in Wicklow was half of what it actually was, Mr Justice Birmingham said the court felt obliged to intervene. If the court was to reduce the man’s sentence by three-and-a-half years, he said it would fail to reflect the seriousness of the offending.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice John Edwards and Mr Justice Tony Hunt, said the appropriate course of action was to reduce the man’s eight year sentence to six years, leaving him with a total 13 years in prison.

The Central Criminal Court heard that the then priest initially made inappropriate remarks about whether or not the victim was entering puberty, and encouraged him to look up sexual subjects online. This progressed to fondling and then to oral rape and sexual assault in the bedroom of the priest’s house.

The boy was subsequently raped and sexually assaulted on a number of occasions, three times in the presbytery in Co Wicklow and once in a car near the priest’s house.

The court heard that the final rape in a presbytery injured the boy, causing him a lot of pain and leading to an operation and continuing health problems.

The former priest’s conviction was upheld in July following an unsuccessful appeal which focused on the trial judge’s decision not to give the jury a corroboration warning.

Giving judgment in July, Mr Justice John Hedigan said the Court of Appeal was not satisfied that there was any incorrect legal basis for deciding not to give a warning.

In his victim impact statement the victim, who is now an adult, said that the abuse had had a traumatic impact on his life.

He said he could not manage without the support of others and his medication, and that it felt ‘ almost impossible’ to take control of his life.

He said he suffered greatly from post- traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, panic and fear and said that many times on a weekly basis, he felt he would be ‘ better off dead’.

The court heard he finds it difficult to hold down a job or to function on a day-to-day basis, and that he avoids his friends and social events because he feels he ‘just doesn’t fit in’.