An Irish Catholic priest who abused his position of trust to carry out sex assaults on two altar boys was given an 18month prison sentence in London yesterday.
Father Patrick Maguire (62), of the Missionary Society of St Columban, admitted indecently assaulting the boys, two brothers, in 1976 and 1977.
Kingston Crown Court heard that the incidents began when Maguire was posted to a hospital in Salford, Manchester, for a month in 1976. He befriended one of the nurses who invited him to her home, where he met her sons, who became altar boys when Maguire celebrated Mass.
Prosecutor, Ms Sarah Plesches, said the first incident happened when Maguire invited one of the boys to spend the night at his home after a Mass. Maguire encouraged the boy into his own bed. Later in the month he assaulted the other brother.
Maguire, who was given three 12-month sentences and one 18-month sentence, to run concurrently, will serve nine months in prison and nine months on licence. The judge ordered that his name must stay on the sex offender register for 10 years.