Ex-priest gets four years for sexually assaulting children
A former priest in the diocese of Kerry who pleaded guilty to 53 counts of sexual assault has been given a four-year prison sentence. John Brosnan carried out the offences against five members of the same family, aged between nine and 16, on dates between 1965 and 1973. The court heard that the family are sincere people who did not want to upset the Church.
In previous evidence, Detective Garda John Evans told the court that Mr Brosnan began abusing the children when they were about nine years of age and continued with the abuse until they were in their mid-teens.
The court heard John Brosnan showed one of the victims pornographic images and that the victims had suffered profound psychological effects from the abuse.
John Brosnan admitted the offences to Gardai when questioned.
Judge Carroll Moran said that, while he accepted the former priest was remorseful, he said the accused had caused the devastation of an entire family.
John Brosnan already served four years in prison after he was convicted in 1997 of abusing five children in the Kerry area in the early 1990s.
Today, he received a sentence of four years with one year's post-release supervision.
