A Dominican priest who sexually abused two boys at Newbridge College, Co Kildare, in 1977 had been moved there three years previously, following reports that he had sexually abused an altar boy from Tallaght, Co Dublin.
The priest was based at the time in St Mary's Dominican Priory, Tallaght.
Father Vincent Mercer (56), former headmaster at Newbridge College, was sentenced on Monday in Naas District Court to six months' imprisonment on four counts of indecently assaulting Peter, then 13, in a dormitory at the College in September-October 1977.
After Peter's parents reported the abuse to the college authorities and a report of similar abuse there by the priest of another boy, Father Mercer was moved within days by the order to a parish in Waterford city. It was explained he was leaving the college "due to illness". In 1982 Father Mercer was moved once again, back to Tallaght.
Sources have confirmed that in August-September 1974 there were three separate reports to the order's authorities at St Mary's Priory in Tallaght of the sexual abuse of an 11 or 12-year-old altar boy by Father Mercer when he had been taken by the priest on an annual two-week holiday to Knockadoon, Co Cork.
There is an annual summer camp for youth in the east Cork village,which has been under the care of Irish Dominicans since 1924.
Within days of those 1974 reports, the order's authorities in Tallaght moved Father Mercer to the Co Kildare boys' boarding school. Within months of his abuse at Knockadoon the Tallaght boy concerned attempted suicide, using a knife.
Father Mercer's second period in Tallaght continued from 1982 to 1985, when he took up an appointment in a Cork city parish.
He remained there for the next 10 years before being withdrawn from the ministry in 1995 when he was sent for treatment to a centre for child sex abusers at Wolvercote, near Epsom in England.
His treatment has been continuing at the Granada Institute in Dublin for the past seven years.
Dr Patrick Randall, principal clinical psychologist at the institute, told Naas District Court on Monday that in his opinion the priest would require treatment for at least another year.
He said tests on Father Mercer indicated the risk of his reoffending was at the lower end of the scale, estimated at 16 per cent within six years. One test, however, set the risk at medium to high, he said.
Meanwhile it has emerged that the Dominican Order has paid large amounts of money to three of Father Mercer's victims.
The money has been described as "a gift", to help pay therapy costs and as compensation.
It is said to amount to at least €200,000 in one case, and has been offered and accepted in each instance without prejudice or condition.