BRITAIN
Yorkshire Post Today
A RETIRED Roman Catholic school priest who indecently assaulted two young deaf boys more than 25 years ago was yesterday given a suspended six-month jail sentence.
Neil Gallanagh, 75, altered his plea to admit patting the naked bottom of a teenager at a swimming baths and to stroking the bottom of a clothed teenager, aged between 12 and 16, in a vestry between 1975 and 1980.
Both victims were pupils of St John's Catholic School for the Deaf, Boston Spa, where Gallanagh was resident chaplain.
The sex offender, who later became parish priest of St Mary's, Horsforth, had denied both charges at a 2003 hearing and also a number of similar charges of assault on four other youngsters, which were yesterday left on file.
Judge Norman Jones QC, sitting at Leeds Crown Court, ordered Gallanagh to be put on the Sex Offender Register for seven years, barred him from unsupervised contact with under-16s and instructed him to pay £1,500 costs.