A former headmaster of Newbridge College has been sentenced to six months in prison for indecently assaulting a first-year pupil there in 1977.
Dominican priest Fr Vincent Mercer pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault at Naas District Court.
Evidence of the indecent assault, which occurred in a dormitory in the college in Co Kildare, was given by Peter Logan in a detailed victim impact statement.
He told how he attempted suicide at 16 and said his adolescence became extremely difficult.
He said he continues to suffer from depression because of the assault.
Psychologist Dr Patrick Randall, from the Granada Institute, said there has been candid and forthright disclosure by Fr Mercer during the past 7 years of treatment.
But District Judge Murrough Connellan questioned this. The Judge said he was sadly imposing a custodial sentence because of the breach of the trust placed in Fr Mercer by parents and children.
Judge Connellan said the offences were not as serious as many which had been outlined in the higher court, but that the scale of the impact had been graphically conveyed by Peter Logan.
After sentence was handed down, Fr Gearóid Manning, the Prior Provincial of the Irish Dominicans, apologised unreservedly for the pain caused to Peter Logan, his family and anyone acquainted with the former headmaster.
