It’s Father Filth! Sex Beast Jailed for Abusing Schoolboy

By Ann Mooney
Irish Sun
February 22, 2013

http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/news/4809141/Its-Father-Filth-Sex-beast-jailed-for-abusing-schoolboy.html

A PRIEST and former headmaster who abused a boy for eight years has been caged.

Fr Vincent Mercer, 66, was previously convicted of indecently assaulting boys between 1970 and 1977.

He received a three-year suspended sentence at Naas Circuit Criminal Court in 2005.

Yesterday, having pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to 15 sample counts of sexually assaulting the boy on dates between 1986 and 1994, he was sentenced to three years in jail.

But he will only serve half — with 18 months suspended.

The priest, out of ministry, remains a member of the Dominican Order.

He is also a former headmaster of Newbridge College in Kildare.

The victim was aged between 11 and 17 at the time and the abuse happened when Mercer resided at St Mary’s Dominican Church at Pope’s Quay in Cork.

His victim told the court he was vulnerable, an easy target.

He was frightened to reveal what happened to him because he was afraid he wouldn’t be believed. But he said: “The day I broke my silence last year was the first day of the rest of my life.

“I could no longer live with the devastation. I felt and I had to speak out and tell what had happened to me. I came here to court for one thing, justice.”

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said the abuse was a most serious breach of trust given the priest’s occupation and that he was a family friend.