Priest sentenced to jail for four years for abusing children

Irish Times
June 25, 1994

A Catholic priest who sexually abused children for more than 20 years was yesterday jailed for four years in Belfast. Crown Court judge Sir Robert Porter told Father Brendan Smyth (67) that between March 1964 and December 1 1988 he had shamefully abused his position of trust as a priest in the Norbertine Order.

Sir Robert said Smyth should not only be punished to reflect the public outcry at his crimes, but also to deter others from the sexual abuse of children, which was becoming all too prevalent.

In all, Smyth pleaded guilty to 17 charges of indecent assault involving the sexual abuse of five girls, two of them sisters, and three boys, two of them brothers, while he was a priest in the Falls Road area of west Belfast.

Smyth, living then in Nansen Street, Belfast, abused the children, who were aged, between eight and 14, in their homes, while at school, on outings and in the Nazareth Lodge orphanage in south Belfast.

Crown lawyer Mr John Creaney QC said that his victims lives had been destroyed by the priest. All had been psychologically and emotionally disturbed by the sexual abuse. One of the girls, he said, had attempted suicide and was still receiving counselling. In the case of the two brothers their marriages fl apart they believed as a direct consequence of their abuse.

Jailing Smyth, Sir Robert the Belfast Recorder, said his crimes were all the more serious because as a priest his young victims may have felt they had no one to turn to. The court heard that one young girl, introduced to Smyth by her sister while they and their brother were in the orphanage, complained after the priest sexually abused her after a ballet class.

Her pleas for lhelp were not believed, however, and for five years between 1972 and 1977 Smyth continually abused her, plying her with sweeets and money until finally she ran away from the home.

When she was eventually returned, she was moved to another home in the country where Smyth came to see her. But there he was not allowed to see the teenage girl alone, and he never bothered her again.

Mr Creaney also told the court that the RUC investigation initially only involved two bothers and another sister and brother but the resulting publicity led to other victims coming forward.

Smyth's defence lawyer Mr Jim Lavery QC said that the priest had been at the mercy of his own urges towards young children which he could not control. Smyth himself, he added, realised that he was "fixated paedophile" and as far back as 1968 he had sought psychiatric help in both Belfast and Dublin but "the treatment was not effective".

Mr Lavery said when Smyth's religious became aware of his "disease" they helped him to get treatment a special closed clinic at Stroud in Gloucester.

However, in April this year the treatment had to be suspended when Smyth had a heart attack brought on partly by the stress of the legal action hanging over him.

Mr Lavery said, that when Smyth completed his sentence he intended to return to the clinic and while there was no recognised cure, it should help him to control his urges. The lawyer added that as a further safeguard to prevent Smyth re offending, after the treatment he would return to Kilnacrott Abbey, Co Cavan.