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	One Kerry Priest Has Been Convicted. Kerryman December 2, 2009 http://www.kerryman.ie/news/one-kerry-priest-has-been-convicted-1960872.html IRELAND -- WHILE allegations of child sex abuse have been made against 11 priests of the Kerry Diocese since 1955 only one has ever been convicted. Fr John Brosnan, of Gurteenrow, Firies, was senteced to four years' in jail when he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of indecent asssault on four females and one male between 1977 and 1985. He was sentenced following a trial at Tralee Circuit Court in which jurors heard shocking evidence of his abuse from five witnesses. It emerged following the case that the then Bishop of Kerry, Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin, had been told of the allegations against Fr John Brosnan several years before the court case, but had not removed him from his duties. He was finally relieved from his duties by Bishop Bil Murphy in 1996. Fr Brosnan is still serving a sentence at Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin. Of the 310 priests in ministry in the Kerry diocese since 1955, complaints have been made against 11. Four of the suspected priests are now dead, two were laicised at their own request, two were dismissed by the Pope and three are no longer in the priesthood. Files were sent to the DPP arising from investigations into three of the 11 complained. In 2005, a mid-Kerry priest stepped aside from his ministry pending an investigation into an allegation of inappropriate sexual behaviour during the 1980s. No allegations of sex abuse against any priest have been made since this investigation.
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