A Dominican priest has been remanded on bail pending sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sexually abusing the son of a parishioner who regularly confided in him
The 62-year-old priest, who has two previous convictions for abusing young boys, pleaded guilty to five charges of sexually assaulting the then eight-year-old boy at a church in Co Louth between May 1991 and April 1992.
Judge Desmond Hogan adjourned sentencing to next May to allow for the preparation of a probation report that would take into account his previous convictions and the therapy he had since undergone. The boy's mother was also confiding in the priest at the time about her own personal difficulties, and he would ask that she send her son to him to talk over their troubles or to go to confession.
Patrick Gageby, SC defending, said that before his 1993 sentence, the Dominican Order sent him to an English residential centre, where he received psychotherapy treatment. He returned there after his release from prison. He is not allowed any contact 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 reoffending in 2001, the priest was recently deemed to be at a low risk of assaulting children.
He had created a situation of denial and disillusion which had been broken down. He now understood the consequences his actions had on the victim.
Mr Gageby said his client was not the same man who abused "this unfortunate child" in 1991 and, although still in the order, he now had an administrative role.