A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Man gets five years over sexual assault while on offenders' list
A man has been given a five-year sentence for sexually assaulting two 11-year-old boys while he was on the sex offenders’ register for a similar offence.
Eric Thomas (35), of Blackhall Street, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the assault of the two boys at a location in Dublin on August 23rd, 2007. Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court suspended the last year of the sentence and ordered he be put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
He was previously put on the register from August 2003 to December 2009 after the sexual assault of a nine-year-old boy.
The court heard Thomas has 11 previous convictions.
Directions sought over Cloyne report
An application by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform for directions concerning publication of a report into the handling of child sex abuse allegations in the Catholic diocese of Cloyne will come before the High Court next month.
A commission of investigation set up by the previous minister has prepared a report into the handling by church and State authorities of allegations of child sexual abuse against clerics operating in the diocese, covering most of Co Cork, between January 1st, 1996, and February 1st, 2009, the court heard yesterday.
The report, comprising 27 chapters and relates to 19 clerics against whom complaints were made, was given to the minister on December 23rd last.
Taxi driver who acted as scout for transport of drugs to be sentenced later
A taxi driver who acted as “scout” for a €564,000 shipment of cannabis herb as it was being transported in a van will be sentenced later at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Alan Healy (39) admitted his fingerprints would be found on the drugs from when he had packed them into coal bags at the back of a truck. Healy, of Stonebridge Avenue, Hartstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty to having 47kg of cannabis at Ventry Road, Dublin, on June 9th, 2009.