An elderly parish priest who has served 15 months of a three-year sentence imposed for sexually abusing an altar boy wept yesterday when the Court of Criminal Appeal reduced his sentence by 10 months. He will be freed in October.
The 75-year-old priest was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on April 28th, 1999 for sexually abusing the boy over an eight-year period.
The decision means the priest will serve 17 of the 27 months he was due to serve. Remission for good conduct would have reduced the 36-month sentence by nine months.
In April 1999, the priest pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually assaulting the altar boy between 1986 and 1994. The first offence occurred when the boy was just nine. He is now 23.