A Dominican priest has been given a suspended sentence of three years by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sexually abusing a then eight-year-old boy.
The 62-year-old priest, who has two previous convictions for abusing young boys, pleaded guilty to a total of five charges of sexually assaulting the victim at a church in Co Louth on dates between May 1st, 1991 and April 30th, 1992.
Judge Hogan made an order on the application of Ms Mary Rose Gearty, prosecuting, that the priest not be named in media reports to protect the victim's identity.
Det Garda Michael Dunne told Ms Gearty that when the boy attended at confession, the priest would request him to sit between his opened legs and lie back into him because he wanted to check his breathing. He would then tell him to hold his breath and count how long he could hold it for before reaching down and fondling the child's genitals.
Det Gda Dunne said the abuse continued in the same manner for almost a year before the priest was jailed for 12 months at Drogheda District Court in 1993 for abusing another boy. The boy's mother approached her son and asked if he too had been abused.
She then confided in a number of friends and approached the gardaí but on hearing that the other victims had been identified in the local community she decided it would be too much to put her son through it and sent him to counselling. The order had since settled litigation with the victim.
Det Garda Dunne said the victim's mother later came into contact with the priest again when she started a course in a Dublin college. She spoke to her son, who decided he was then in a position to proceed with the case.
Det Garda Dunne told Ms Gearty that in 2001 the priest had a second conviction at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for abusing a young boy in the 1980s, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £50,000 to each victim and to charity.
Det Garda Dunne agreed with Mr Patrick Gageby SC (with Mr Sean Gillane), defending, that before his 1993 sentence, the order sent him to an English residential centre, Shroud, where he received psychotherapy treatment. He returned there after his release from prison.
It was accepted that the priest has been transferred to an order in Dublin that was aware of his previous convictions and where he was under a strict regime.
The priest is not allowed any contact with children or families with children and does not wear clerical clothing or celebrate mass.
Dr Patrick Walsh, of the Granada Institute told Mr Gageby that despite being assessed as having a moderate risk of re-offending in 2001, the priest was recently deemed to be at a low risk of sexually assaulting children.
Dr Walsh said this assessment was based on the nature of the man's understanding and acknowledgment of his behaviour, his experience in prison and treatment, and the matter being addressed before the courts.
Mr Gageby said there was evidence of his client's rehabilitation and that he had addressed the issue of his re-offending in a practical way by limiting his interaction with children within the order and "reordering his mind through therapy".
Mr Gageby said his client was not the same man who abused "this unfortunate child" in 1991 and that although he was still in the order, he now had an administrative role.