A missionary brother who indecently assaulted his teenage nephew while on holiday has been given a three-year sentence by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The victim became suicidal and his emotional development was stunted as a result of the abuse, Judge O'Donnell said.
The 51-year-old Brother pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting his nephew on dates unknown between February 27th, 1978, and February 27th, 1982, at two locations in Ireland.
Judge O'Donnell said he took into account the effects the abuse had on the victim, as well as the defendant's age in imposing a three-year sentence and a report from the Granada Institute which indicated he was not a future risk to anyone.
Judge O'Donnell suspended the final year of the sentence and ordered that the missionary order, which he directed should not be named in the media, pays all of the victim's costs.
Senior counsel Patrick MacEntee, for the Brother, said his client had committed the offences at a time when he was coming to terms with a realisation he found difficult, that he was of a homosexual orientation.