A missionary priest who sexually abused two boys during visits home from the West Indies has been given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to pay £150,000 compensation. Andrew Allen, a Dominican priest, was on missionary duty in Trinidad and Tobago during the years of the offences.
Allen (57), with an address at St Saviour's, Dorset Street, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to four sample charges of indecent assault on two brothers on dates from 1981 to 1985.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, he undertook to pay £50,000 to each of his victims and a further £50,000 to Kedron Counselling and Therapy Centre in Edenderry, Co Offaly.
Both victims said problems they had arose from the effects of the abuse.
Garda Malachy Dunne said Allen was jailed for a year by Drogheda District Court in 1993 for sexually assaulting an altar boy on dates from 1991 to 1992.
Judge Patrick McCartan said that while Allen's offending was on the lower end of the spectrum, his actions had caused "calamity and disaster in every direction". He had invaded his victims' lives and broken his bond of trust with them.
"The sentence cannot even begin to address the scale of harm done. They have lived a life that has been blighted very substantially and this cannot be ignored."