NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV
A disgraced former Catholic priest received an 18 month suspended prison sentence for what a judge described as “a significant and grievous breach of trust” for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy in his care.
Daniel Curran, 64 and of Bryansford Avenue, Newcastle, appeared in the dock of the Downpatrick Crown Court on Monday for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to one count of gross indecency towards a male child and also admitted a single charge of indecent assault on the same victim.
The offences took place between August 1990 and August 1993 at a cottage owned by his family in Co Down when the victim was aged between seven and 10.
Passing sentence, Judge Piers Grant told Curran that he had pleaded guilty to “serious offences” by “deliberately targeting groups of individuals” to ply them with alcohol so he could abuse them in the family cottage.
Prosecution QC David McDowell told the court that the victim was a pupil of a primary school in north Belfast and at the age of seven, Curran came to the school in his role as a priest and asked him if he wanted to serve as an altar boy.
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