A former missionary priest found in bed with young boys he had abused was jailed for six years yesterday.
Dundalk Circuit Court was told that Patrick Maguire (64), of Dalgan Park, Navan, Co Meath, had been extradited to face the charges after serving a prison term in England for similar offences.
Judge Raymond Groarke said Maguire, a Columban priest, carried out the offences in a cold and calculated way. Maguire pleaded guilty to 10 charges of indecently assaulting five boys, including two sets of brothers between 1972 and 1980 in Dublin, Louth and Sligo.
Garda Sgt Martin Beggy told the court that Maguire had been found in bed with the two sets of brothers by their respective mothers. Both mothers were widowed and had befriended Maguire as he travelled the country preaching.
Maguire also pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a then 12year-old boy in a boat on Carlingford Lough. It was this victim who made the first complaint to gardai.
Garda Sgt Beggy said he had tracked the defendant down to a clinic in England. The court heard it treated people with paedophile problems but Maguire could not attend it once he had appeared before the courts.
In June 1998, he received an 18-month sentence at the Crown Court in Kingston Upon Thames. It was imposed in relation to four charges of indecently assaulting males under 14 years.
Mr Raymond Comyn, defending, said while waiting for the case to be finalised Maguire has been living at the headquarters of the Columban order in Ireland under the equivalent of house arrest. He said two character witnesses who worked with the defendant in England spoke highly of his work and said he had expressed remorse.
Judge Groarke said the offences were perverse and involved taking the innocence of young children. They also involved an element of intimidation. The consequences on the victims were detailed in a harrowing way in the victim impact reports and the victims, now adults, continued to carry the scars of Maguire's conduct.
The judge, imposing concurrent sentences of six years for each offence, said he would review the matter in three years.