Irish sex abuse priest jailed

2009-12-16 22:22

Dublin - A notorious Irish paedophile priest was jailed on Wednesday in a move that Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said he hoped would bring solace to his victims.

Father Thomas Naughton, 78, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at a hearing in Bray Circuit Court south of Dublin following his conviction on charges of sexually assaulting a young altar boy between 1982 and 1984.

Martin said Naughton was an abuser who damaged the lives of many innocent young people, adding: "I hope those involved in today's proceedings will find some solace and justice in his having to serve a jail sentence for his crimes."

A damning report by judge Yvonne Murphy in November concluded that Dublin archbishops had concealed clerical abuse of children and failed to inform police of their crimes over a period of more than three decades.

Naughton, who had spent time in Africa and the West Indies after he was ordained in 1963 for the Saint Patrick's Missionary Society, had already been sentenced to three years in 1998 for abusing four young boys.

However, Murphy said he had been named as an abuser by more than 20 people and there were "suspicions in respect of many more".

Her report found Church officials moved Naughton from parish to parish as abuse complaints were made against him.

Last week Pope Benedict XVI apologised for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, saying he "shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland (over) these heinous crimes".

- AFP