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See other International News Articles Title: Irish priest to be jailed for two years for abusing altar server
Source:
georgiabulletin.org
URL Source: http://www.georgiabulletin.org/world/2009/12/17/WORLD-3/
Published: Dec 19, 2009
Author: georgiabulletin.org
Post Date: 2009-12-19 20:46:11 by WhiteSands
Keywords: Child Abuse, Catholcis, Priests
Views: 239
DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- The priest at the center of the child abuse case that led to the Dec. 17 resignation of Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick will spend two years in jail for sexually assaulting a young altar server. Father Thomas Naughton pleaded guilty in Bray Circuit Court Dec. 16 to five charges of indecent assault on the boy when he was assigned to a parish in Valleymount, southeast of Dublin, between 1982 and 1984. The abuse, which started when the victim was 6 years old, was described by Judge Michael O'Shea as "systematic, shocking and horrific." The court heard that the survivor was abused by the St. Patrick's Missionary Society priest "about 70 times" and that the victim, now an adult, continues to undergo counseling for sexual addiction and has tried taking his life in the past. The maximum sentence for indecent assault in Ireland is 10 years, but because the 72-year-old priest is in ill health, the court sentenced him to three years' imprisonment on each of the five charges. The judge suspended 12 months of each sentence and ordered that they be served concurrently. Prosecutor Paul Murray told the court that Father Naughton told police he could not remember specific incidents of abuse but they were likely to have happened. When Father Naughton was convicted in 1998 of indecently assaulting altar servers in Artane, near Dublin, he was given a three-year jail sentence that was later reduced by six months. He had lived under strict supervision at the headquarters of St. Patrick's Missionary Society in Kilteagan after he was released and was barred from celebrating Mass and wearing clerical garb.
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