BRITAIN
Life Style Extra
LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - A shamed senior Roman Catholic priest has been jailed for sexually abusing a young boy more than 40 years ago.
Monsignor John Coghlan, now aged 71, was locked up for 18 months after being convicted of five counts of indecency with a child in the 1960s.
Father Coghlan, the suspended parish priest of St Thomas More in Eastcote, Middlesex, abused his victim - now in his 50's - when he started his ministry in the Parish of the Sacred Heart in Ruislip, west London, as a curate soon after his ordination in 1961.
Jailing the priest at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Andrew McDowall first considered the contents of more than 30 letters from friends and supporters of the disgraced clergyman.
The Judge said: "These offences are serious and I cannot see any alternative to a custodial sentence.