THERE had to be deterrents to stop people in privileged positions abusing young children in their care, a judge stated yesterday.
An 82 year old religious brother was sentenced to four years penal servitude in the Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he pleaded guilty to four charges of in decently assaulting young boys in his care over a 20 year period.
Judge Patrick Moran suspended the last three years of the sentence he imposed on the brother, who cannot be named because of a ban imposed on the press by the judge. He also included the name of the victims, the name of the religious order and the institution in which the abuse occurred from 1959 to 1979 in the order.
Despite a plea from the provincial of the order not to send the brother to prison, Judge Moran said there had to be a deterrent in cases where people in privileged positions abused the trust placed in them.
The brother pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting the boys aged between eight and 13 years over two decades. The matter came to light when one of his victims made a complaint to the Garda in November 1995.
Judge Moran told the brother: "You occupied a position which involved contact with young boys and teenage boys who were in the care of your community.
"There has to be a deterrent in cases like this where people in privileged positions cannot commit acts of this nature on young vulnerable children."
He said he accepted that the head of the order had apologised on the defendant's behalf and on behalf of the community to the victims' families and that they had been offered counselling services.
However, he was imposing a four year penal servitude sentence and in view of the brother's age he was suspending three of these.