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	Judge Jails "Serial Offender" Former Priest for Sex Attacks on Boys Irish Times December 7, 2010 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1207/1224284926553.html COURT REPORT: A FORMER Dublin priest who was previously jailed for sexually abusing six boys has been sentenced to 16 years, with four suspended, for abusing a further three victims. Media restrictions on identifying the victims apply in this case. Tony Walsh was sentenced yesterday for abusing three young boys in the 1970s and 1980s. He pleaded guilty last week at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of indecently assaulting a boy in a west Dublin school between November 1978 and April 1979. Walsh also pleaded guilty to a charge of indecently assaulting another boy in a west Dublin presbytery between January 1984 and December 1985. In a case last month, he was convicted by a jury on nine counts of indecent assault and five of buggery on a third boy between June 1st, 1979, and June 30th, 1983. He had denied all those charges. Mr Justice Frank O’Donnell yesterday described Walsh as a “serial offender” who had inflicted a “life sentence” on one of his victims. “It is difficult to imagine more reprehensible circumstances than a priest in confession setting about the sexual abuse of a young boy.” The judge said of the abuse of one case: “This is a gross breach of trust, and that’s putting it mildly.” He sentenced Walsh to terms ranging from four to 16 years on a total of 17 counts, all to run concurrently. He suspended the final four years of the 16-year term because of a report stating the former priest was unlikely to reoffend. Walsh was also put on the sex offenders register for life and will undergo two years probation supervision on his release. The former priest said “thank you” to the judge before being led away by prison officers. Walsh (57), Bunratty Road, Coolock, tied up one boy, “David”, with the ropes from his vestments before anally raping him in the local presbytery. When David started to cry, Walsh turned up the music to drown him out. Afterwards, he told the boy he would “burn in hell for all eternity” if he told anyone what had happened. David told the court yesterday that as a result of the abuse, he became mentally ill and made his first suicide attempt at 16. While the abuse was ongoing, he confided to his uncle what Walsh was doing to him. His uncle then raped him. On hearing his evidence yesterday, Mr Justice O’Donnell commended David: “I’ve listened to you being cross-examined. You’re an absolute stalwart.” The court heard that when “Noel”, another of the abused boys, told his parents what Walsh was doing to him, his mother asked: “How can you say that about a man of God?” Noel was then beaten badly by both parents and sent back to Walsh, who again molested him. Walsh committed most of the abuse of another victim, “Tim”, while he was at Confession. The then priest would sit Tim on his knee and molest him before finishing the Confession. On one occasion, he abused Tim before taking him to see the All Priests Show, in which Walsh performed as an Elvis impersonator. The court heard the now defrocked priest had expressed remorse and accepted the gravity of some of his offences but continued to deny the most serious instances of abuse. Previously, in 1996, he was convicted after trial of 19 counts of abusing six other boys and was sentenced to 10 years. This was reduced to six years on appeal. David Keane SC, defending, said his client had been out of work since his release from prison in 2001 and was living alone. He submitted Walsh had not come to Garda attention since and now had no connection with the church.
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