A CATHOLIC priest sentenced earlier in the week for sexually assaulting a young girl in a hospital bed received another prison term yesterday for abusing a girl in Co Wicklow.
Father Paul McGennis (66), of Tonlegee Road, Edenmore, pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to two counts of indecent assault committed between 1977 and 1979.
Sgt Pat Coady said the abuse started when the girl was nine years old and occurred at the curate's house in a Co Wicklow village which she used to visit for choir practice. The defendant used to touch her intimately and force her to touch herself, the sergeant said.
Sgt Coady added that 30 other members of the choir at the time had been interviewed by gardai but no other allegations of abuse were reported.
The victim, now aged 29, told the court she still felt "unclean" because of what happened despite a year of counselling. She had lost faith in herself and the church.
A previous hearing was told how the priest indecently assaulted a 13-year-old girl in 1960 while he was chaplain at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin.
Judge Gerard Haughton refused an application from the defence barrister, Mr Patrick McEntee SC, to reconsider consecutive sentences totalling 18 months imposed for the hospital offences on Tuesday.
Judge Haughton said there were aggravating factors in that case, ash the girl was particularly vulnerable in hospital with a broken arm and the defendant had photographed her.
"He has destroyed the innocence of two victims and seriously damaged their faith and religion," he said.
Judge Haughton imposed a nine-month sentence for the Wicklow offences to run concurrently with the 18-month sentence.