An Irish former priest, Francis Cullen (85), was given a 15-year sentence yesterday for sexually abusing four altar boys and two young girls over 35 years in the English Midlands.
The Dublin-born ex-priest was arrested by Nottingham police in 1991, who had begun to investigate allegations made by three of his victims..
However, he fled to Spain while on bail. Having lived for more than 20 years on the run, Cullen was extradited to Britain from Tenerife under a European Arrest Warrant.
Sentencing Cullen yesterday in Derby crown court, Judge Jonathan Gosling declared: “You took full advantage of your position, and the trust in which you were held, to satisfy your perverted lust.
"To say that you were a disgrace to your cloth understates your activity. This was gross hypocrisy. In a sentence, your entire life was a lie," the judge went on.
The abuse
The decision of the three prompted four more to come forward to give details about the abuse carried out by Cullen in Derby and later in Nottingham from 1957 to 1991.
The ex-priest had been expected to deny the charges against him at Derby Crown Court in February but changed his plea to guilty when he came before the judge. “As a Catholic priest, Francis Paul Cullen was a trusted member of his community and held in high regard by his parishioners,” said prosecutor Janine Smith.
"Yet right from the very start of his ministry, he was abusing children, boys and girls, in his pastoral care.
'Betrayal of trust'
"This was a betrayal of trust that devastated the lives of his victims," she said.
The Catholic Diocese of Nottingham welcomed the jail term, saying it reflected “the gravity of his offence and the scandal which they have caused”.
“We realise that no sentence, however long, can fully make up for the lasting damage which his victims have suffered but we hope that his sentence will contribute towards their healing,” said Fr Andrew Cole.
“We are truly sorry for the wrong that has been done by Cullen to his victims and their families; their trust was betrayed and their dignity violated,” he went on.
Cullen abused four altar boys in Mackworth, Derbyshire, between the 1950s and 1970s.
In the 1980s, he abused two girls after he moved to work in Buxton, Derbyshire, and then went on to abuse another altar boy in the early 1990s after he moved to Nottinghamshire, the court was told.
