A Northern Ireland priest who financed the grooming of a young girl for sex was jailed for five years in the UK yesterday.
Fr Jeremiah McGrath (64) gave more than €20,000 to his friend, convicted child rapist Billy Adams, who used the cash to shower a 12-year-old with treats and gifts.
Having bought her silence and trust, 38-year-old Adams, originally from Belfast but latterly of Bootle, Merseyside, raped her repeatedly over a six-month period in 2005.
During a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, McGrath, from Roslea, Co Fermanagh, insisted he had no idea that Adams was abusing the girl and claimed the money was linked to his gambling habit.
Yesterday, McGrath was jailed at the same court for five years and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs. Adams was sentenced to life and ordered to serve a minimum term of seven-and-a-half years before he is considered for release.
Sentencing the priest, Judge Brian Lewis said it was McGrath's standing in the community which had made him such a useful ally to Adams.
"This is a grievous, serious offence and one of which you should be deeply ashamed."
During the trial McGrath had admitted knowing that Adams, with whom he had a sexual relationship, was a convicted child rapist but said he believed his protestations of innocence. The court heard the priest was "obsessed" with Adams and would do anything to keep him happy. Trevor Parry-Jones, defending McGrath, said: "Fr McGrath's purpose was not that this child should suffer these offences - his purpose was to see Adams.
"The conviction means effectively, in one way, he closed his eyes, he would not interfere, he was obsessed with Adams and wanted to be with him."
Mr Parry-Jones added: "His fall from grace has been dramatic. He was held in very great esteem and that has now gone." Although, the priest continues to deny the offence, he was said to "bitterly regret" discrediting the Catholic Church.
During the trial it emerged that McGrath's personal wealth came from successful gambling - he won £60,000 on one race alone in 1989 - and from property he inherited from a couple he met while working in Florida.
The priest had denied facilitating the abuse but was convicted by a jury last month.
The court heard that Adams, who admitted five charges including rape, began to abuse his victim only six months after he was released from serving half of a 12-year prison sentence for raping an eight-year-old girl.
He had previously served another 10 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1997. The court heard that Adams had been repeatedly sexually abused as a child himself.
Sentencing him, Judge Lewis said he was a predatory paedophile who "represented a serious harm to the public".