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	Priest from Newbury Jailed for Sexually Abusing a String of Young Girls over a 25-Year Period Newbury Today January 8, 2008 http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=5971 A RETIRED priest, living in Newbury, has been jailed by a court in Ireland for sexually abusing several young girls over a 25-year period. Father Patrick McDonagh, 75, pleaded guilty on December 20 to eight counts of sexual and indecent assault on four girls, and voluntarily admitted abusing six others, all aged between six and 10 at the time. Counsel for the prosecution, Melanie Greally, told the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin that when he was arrested a year ago for allegedly abusing a young girl in 1990, McDonagh had told police that he had also abused nine other girls. He said that the abuse had started in the mid 1960s when he began to visit the home of a girl from Dublin, who later became one of his victims. Garda officer, Sgt Gerard Daly, said in court that the priest had admitted visiting two girls in Limerick for long weekends in the early 1980s and it was during such visits that the offences were committed. Sgt Daly said the most recent abuse incident took place with a girl in Roscommon early in the 1990s. One night, when the girl wandered into the priest's bedroom by mistake, he asked her to get into bed with him. When arrested, McDonagh had admitted the offences and acknowledged he had abused his position of power but denied there was "any sexual motivation" behind what he had done. In his evidence, Father McAllister the representative of the Salvatorian order to which McDonagh belonged said that during his career the priest had held various positions in boys' schools and seminaries and had worked in Italy and in Australia. He said that even if McDonagh was defrocked as a result of the case, he would continue to remain under the care of the order for "child protection" purposes. The court was told that McDonagh had been a member of the Salvatorian order since 1955, and had been under the care of the order from his retirement four years ago. Father McAllister said in court that, since the abuse allegations had come to light, the priest had been "under strict instructions" to receive counselling and had not been allowed to say Mass or to have any contact with children. Senior counsel Patrick Gageby, defending, appealed to Judge Patrick McCartan not to impose a custodial sentence, given the strict conditions under which McDonagh was being kept by the Salvatorian order, as well as his early guilty plea and the fact that he had shown remorse for what he had done. However, the judge said that the seriousness of the offences merited a prison term. He imposed a four-year jail sentence but suspended all but 18 months, which McDonagh must serve behind bars. Before being sent to prison, McDonagh lived in Newbury in a retirement home for priests.
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