A retired priest has been told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work after admitting indecently assaulting three teenage boys in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Colman McGrath, 76, abused two boys who were training to join the priesthood at Blairs College in Aberdeen and a boy at his parish in Langside, Glasgow.

The offences were committed between August 1972 and September 1982.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, McGrath was put on the sex offenders' register and placed on supervision for three years.

The court heard that McGrath was ordained as a priest in June 1962 and between August 1963 and June 1978 taught at Blairs College, where young men studied with a view to joining the priesthood.

Pupil 'punishment'

He was then based at St Helen's in Langside between 1979 and 1984.

The first charge, which spanned between August 1972 and June 1973, involved a 17-year-old boy at Blairs College.

McGrath was said to have commented on the boy's skin condition before rubbing an oil-based substance on him after ordering the teenager to take off his clothes.

This happened on two occasions and on a third, McGrath struck the semi-naked boy with a slipper as a punishment.

In March 2014, the victim contacted the Archdiocese and reported the incidents.

The court was told the second victim - a 16-year-old pupil at Blairs - remembers four incidents between August 1973 and February 1974.

These involved him being hit on the buttocks with a hair brush.

The boy did not join the priesthood and later spoke to a priest about the abuse when his marriage broke down.

Abuse reported

The final victim McGrath preyed on was a 14-year-old student struggling with maths who was sent to him for tutoring in September 1980 at St Helen's in Langside.

He was hit with a belt when there was a mistake made during teaching sessions, before later being spanked by the priest.

The boy was made to take off his trousers and pants and was bent over the priest's knees and was hit on the bottom with his hand.

The teenager left school not long after the abuse and reported it to the Archdiocese years later.

The court was told that McGrath told police in June 2014 that he remembered the boys involved but denied the allegations.

It was said on McGrath's behalf that he said he could not recall the incidents rather than it being outright denial.

McGrath, through is lawyer, made an "unreserved and full apology" to all three victims and said that they "feature regularly in the prayers of the accused".