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Ex priest raped boy he paid for gardening
Sunday World
A FORMER priest who raped and assaulted a child he had paid to do his gardening has received an eight-year prison sentence. Denis Nolan (64), formerly of The Presbytery, Rathnew, Co Wicklow, is already serving a sentence for sexually abusing a different child six years ago and has since been defrocked. Last March, a jury at the Central Criminal Court convicted him of six counts of oral rape, defilement and sexual assault in his home between 2005 and 2006. The victim was aged between 10 and 11 at the time. Nolan, who was a parish priest in Co Wicklow and served on the board of management of a local school, had denied the charges. Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed sentences of eight years for the rape offences and sentences of four years for other offences. These will run concurrently from the date his current sentence ends. Mr Justice McCarthy said the victim was quite clearly groomed. He described this is as “a most grave breach of trust” on Nolan’s part. The former priest gave the victim the opportunity to work in his garden and the garden of the presbytery. The boy was subsequently raped and sexually assaulted on a number of occasions, three times in the presbytery in Co Wicklow and once in a car near the priest’s house. In his impact statement, the victim, who is now an adult, said that the abuse had a traumatic impact. He 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”. On his release, Nolan will be placed on post-release supervision and required to obey the instructions of a probation officer for a period of four years.
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