Ex-priest faces maximum of two years for raping boy with crucifix…(Two Years!?…Hang Him!)
‘Singing’ cleric Tony Walsh has 17 previous convictions for indecently assaulting children
Sonya McLean
IrishTimes.com
Mon, Jul 4, 2016
Former “singing” priest Tony Walsh faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison for raping a boy with a crucifix, a court has heard.
Anthony Walsh (62) committed the offence and two other rapes of the same victim before the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act came into effect in 1990, meaning that the maximum penalty the judge can impose on each offence is two years.
He is charged with indecent assault as that was the offence which existed at the time. He forced the child to have sex twice, once in the parochial house in his parish and on another occasion in a tunnel under the Phoenix Park. He also used a crucifix to rape the boy.
Walsh told the jury during the trial last month that he never knew the boy and said he never assaulted him.
Walsh, formerly of North Circular Road, Dublin 7 had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of indecently assaulting the boy on dates between January 1980 and December 1982. The boy was aged between 10 and 13 years old at the time of the abuse.
The jury of two women and ten men returned verdicts of guilty on all counts after approximately one hour of deliberation following a three day trial.
The Rest…HERE
