A former spiritual director and bursar of Gormanston College, Co Meath, who sexually abused four pupils there some 30 years ago, has been remanded for sentence by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Fr Ronald Bennett (71), who was sports master at the college, pleaded guilty to six sample charges of indecent assault on dates from 1974 to 1981.
Niall Muldoon, senior clinical psychologist at the Granada Institute, said Fr Bennett had undergone "considerable therapy" there since 1999 and was categorised at the lowest level of risk of reoffending.
Mr Muldoon told Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, that when appointed in 1963, Fr Bennett was "ill-equipped for the position of spiritual director" and dealing with sex education matters because he couldn't distinguish the boundaries in relation to his own sexuality.
He had grown up as an only child in a very sheltered atmosphere and was very immature regarding sexual matters when he went to secondary school and then joined the seminary.
Mr Muldoon said Fr Bennett would have considered himself to be "a very upright man" and didn't see any consequences arising when abusing the victims, but when he read in the 1980s of the damage done by this activity he became "very much aware" of the harm he had done and was remorseful.
Garda Sgt Margaret Murrell told Karen O'Connor BL, prosecuting, that an investigation was launched in 1999 after one of the victims complained to gardaí of being sexually assaulted at Gormanston College while a boarder there from 1974. Fr Bennett's duties as spiritual director including organising teams of altar boys.
Sgt Murrell said the investigation revealed that the complainant had been abused more than the other victims referred to in the charges.
The abuse began with Fr Bennett touching them outside their clothes culminating with the abuse taking place in some cases with both parties totally naked.
The victims were teenagers, with three of them being boarders and one a day pupil.
One of the victims was a day pupil who described thinking at the time that this activity might be "okay" because Fr Bennett "was a person in authority and it concerned sex education".
Sgt Murrell said Fr Bennett was arrested 1999 and accepted there was "substance" in the allegations made by one of the victims but said he couldn't recall all the details in relation to this man.
"I presume I did these things with him," he said.
Sgt Murrell agreed with Mr Hartnett that "significant compensation" had been paid to the victims.
His guilty plea was a great help and relief to the victims. He also expressed remorse from the time he was arrested and there was no allegation made after 1981.
Fr Pádraig Loman MacAodha, director at the Franciscan house where the priest now lives, said Fr Bennett resided there under "very stringent" conditions and that he was involved for the past eight years in secretarial and administrative duties only.
He had no contact with children.
Fr Bennett's faculties for hearing Confession and saying Mass publicly had been withdrawn and he also had to seek permission to leave the house.
"He has become more aware of the meaning and effect of his offending and is most remorseful," said Fr MacAodha.
Judge Hogan said that having regard to the fact that these were extremely serious offences, he wanted time to have "serious regard to the victim impact statements and the consequences which have been suffered by the young men", before proceeding to sentence.