'COLD AND CALCULATING' Serial paedophile Fr Denis Nolan caged for eight years after raping ‘child of great innocence’

By Eavan Murray
Irish Sun
May 15, 2017

https://goo.gl/kZRmHN

Fr Denis Nolan former parish priest at Rathnew

SERIAL paedophile Fr Denis Nolan has been sentenced to eight years for the rape and sexual assault of a young boy.

The disgraced Wicklow-based former priest, described in court as “cold and calculating”, is already serving time for sickening abuse of another teenage lad.

The 64-year-old fiend denied two counts of rape and four of sexually assaulting the boy in Co Wicklow between January 2005 and September 2006.

The court heard Nolan’s horrific crimes left his victim feeling that he would be better off dead.

In sentencing Judge Patrick McCarthy said the accused engaged in a concentrated effort to groom his victim who was “a child of great innocence”.

The victim was aged 13 when the abuse began after Nolan gave him a chance to work in his garden.

Knowing that the child, who had educational difficulties, had an interest in horticulture, Nolan offered him training in garden maintenance.

The sicko initially paid the boy €10 or €15 in general for his gardening, but increased the amount once the abuse began.

Nolan’s attacks on the boy grew increasingly bold and depraved and escalated from fondling to rape.

Some of the sexual assaults took place in the bedroom of the priest’s house, once in a car near the house and others in a presbytery in Co Wicklow.

The monster’s final attack on the child was so severe, he caused the boy horrific injuries which led to him requiring surgery and has caused him continuing health problems.

In his victim impact statement, the now 24-year-old said he suffered greatly from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, panic and fear and said that many times on a weekly basis, he felt he would be “better off dead”.

The former priest has 20 previous convictions relating to the sexual assault of another boy, described as a “successor” to this victim, between 2007 and 2012.

Despite his grotesque history, Nolan has consistently refused to admit his guilt.

Judge McCarthy said Nolan came before the court with “very little to be said in his favour”.

Sentencing Nolan to eight years the judge wished the victim well.

Describing him as an “extremely sincere young man” the judge said he felt sure “he would make every effort” to rebuild his life.