NORTHERN IRELAND
News Letter
A paedophile priest told a distraught seven-year-old boy that he could get his dead grandfather into heaven if he performed a sex act on him, a court heard yesterday.
Belfast Crown Court heard that the boy was quite distressed about his grandfather being in purgatory but that 55-year-old James Martin Donaghy told the child “he could get him into heaven if he helped him” before he exposed himself and then forced the boy to perform a sex act.
Last month, just before his trial was due to begin, Donaghy, originally from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn but now in Magilligan jail, pleaded guilty to four charges of indecently assaulting the boy and one of common assault against the schoolboy on dates between January and May 1989.
Following a lengthy trial at the end of 2011 Donaghy was convicted of a total of 17 sex offences including indecent assault and committing acts of gross indecency against three victims and two further charges of serious sexual assault on two of his victims.
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