IRELAND
online.ie
A Dominican priest who sexually assaulted a schoolboy in a "reign of terror " at Newbridge College was today given a three-year suspended sentence.
Father Vincent Mercer, 58, pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting six boys at the college, as well as two boys at a holiday camp in Cork, between 1970 and 1977.
At Naas Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Raymond Groake said Mercer had deliberately chosen to abuse his victims in dormitories where they would be too frightened to alert anyone else about what was taking place.
He added that it took no genius to recognise the harm caused to his victims.