A FORMER Dublin priest has been found guilty by a jury at the Circuit Criminal Court of serious sexual assaults on an altar boy who was aged between seven and 12 at the time.
The verdict was unanimous on all counts.
Due to ongoing media restrictions ordered by the courts in this case the identity of the former priest or the man he abused as a child cannot be reported, nor can details which could lead to either being identified.
The man was found guilty on five charges of buggery and eight of indecent assault. He was remanded in custody pending sentencing on December 7th.
The former priest originally faced 16 charges, six of buggery and 10 of indecent assault, referring to incidents between June 1st, 1979, and June 30th, 1983.
In his evidence, the now 38- year-old victim indicated that the 16 indictments were sample charges.
Over the relevant years, he “was interfered with or raped, or both, once a week . . . sometimes three times a week”, he said. All charges were denied by his abuser.
Two charges were dropped last Friday on the direction of Judge Frank O’Donnell. These concerned an allegation of buggery and an allegation of indecent assault at an enclosure near an area where the victim and other children used to play.
In statements to gardaí, the victim alleged that the assaults at the enclosure had taken place on February 10th, 1980, his eighth birthday. He told the court the alleged incidents occurred when he was “nine or 10, definitely not eight”. He agreed in court he had said in statements to gardaí in 1998 and 1999 that they occurred in 1980.
David Keane SC, defending, said the defendant attended at two baptisms on the 1980 date, which was a Sunday.
A man told the court last Friday that his son had been baptised at the family home by the then priest at 4pm on the relevant date and had taken part in celebrations there until 10pm-10.30pm that night.
Of the remaining 14 charges, the jury dropped another one yesterday as it was an “alternative” charge, as Mary Rose Gearty SC, for the State, had put it in her opening address last Wednesday.
It concerned an incident at the local presbytery where the victim was tied before being raped by the former priest. The two charges arising alleged buggery on the occasion and/or indecent assault.
The jury foreman told for the court yesterday that the jurors had found the defendant guilty of buggery on that occasion and, this being so, the indecent assault charge was no longer relevant.
Describing this incident to the court last Wednesday, the victim said it took place when he was “around 10”. It was “a sports day at the school” and although he was “not very sporty”, he had won a medal. It was, he recalled, “a hot day”.
He met the priest who said to him “fair play to you” and brought him back to the presbytery. The victim recalled that, as usual, the priest put on music and offered him crisps, sweets and lemonade.
“He asked me did I want to play a game? I said ‘yes’ and then he asked me to come over to the coffee table in the room. He took one of those ropes for priest’s vestments and he asked me to bend over the table. He tied my wrists to my ankles and pulled my shorts down.”
As the rape took place and the boy began to cry, his abuser “closed a window and turned the music up. He said everything was fine and that he loved me. He said if anything was going on at home to tell him. I went home about two hours later”.
